The American company Lockheed Martin and the German Rheinmetall will jointly develop a European multiple launch rocket system. It will be based on the highly mobile artillery missile system M142, better known as HIMARS.

What is known

The system is called GMARS (G – Germany). It will have a wheeled chassis and will be a replacement for the MARS II multiple launch rocket system (pictured below), which uses the Bradley tracked armored vehicle as a chassis. The new development was announced by Howard Bromberg, vice president and deputy for strategy and business development of the air and missile defense division of Lockheed Martin.

Germany handed over to the Ukrainian Armed Forces five MARS II systems, which are a modernized European analogue of the M270 MLRS. The launcher includes two containers, each of which can hold up to six missiles, depending on the caliber.

The Bundeswehr is armed with 34 MARS II systems. This information was confirmed by a representative of the German armed forces. At the same time, the press service did not go into details regarding the operational readiness of the rocket launchers.

The new development will receive a Lockheed Martin launcher and a Rheinmetall chassis. GMARS will look like HIMARS but will have a larger chassis and two containers instead of one. The launcher will be located on a Rheinmetall HX 8×8 vehicle (pictured below), which will be built in Vienna. Its length will be approximately 12 meters, which is 5 meters more than FMTV for HIMARS.

Germany plans to sell GMARS to other European countries. It is expected that the new missile systems will be put into service in two years. Some components for GMARS will be imported from USA. In terms of projectiles, GMARS will be able to use approximately 80% of the HIMARS ammunition range.

Source: Defense News