U.S. soldiers fire an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, during a Talisman Sabre drill at Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia, July 22, 2023. (Jennessa Davey/Stars and Stripes)
Australia will start making guided missiles next year under a $37.4 million contract with U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the Australian government announced this week.
The contract allows an initial batch of missiles for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, to be made in Australia, according to a statement Tuesday from Pat Conroy, the nation’s minister for defence industry.
The deal is “an important first step towards establishing domestic missile manufacturing,” he said.
The contract allows the transfer of technical data from the United States and sets processes for engineering certification and training Australian workers, the statement said.
The Australian government will also acquire precision strike missiles that can engage targets out to 311 miles, according to the statement.
High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, can fire both the precision strike missiles and GMLRS missiles, Conroy’s statement said.
Australia announced in January 2023 that it would buy 20 U.S.-made HIMARS systems. The U.S. State Department in August greenlighted the sale of another 22 HIMARS to Australia along with 60 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and other munitions.
U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific have trained regularly with HIMARS in recent years, including at the biennial Talisman Sabre drills in Australia in 2021 and 2023.
HIMARS munitions have a range of up to 186 miles, which is expected to increase with technological advances, the Australian government said at the time.
Australian-made missiles of all types will be made available to the U.S. military and other close allies when appropriate, Ross Babbage, a former Australian assistant defense secretary, said in an email Tuesday to Stars and Stripes.
The capability will enable Australia to replenish its missile stocks in a conflict, although information about the rate at which the country might produce missiles hasn’t been released, Babbage said.
“The intent is to have a range of priority missiles manufactured here … the production of which can be scaled up substantially as required,” he said.
Australia is also buying U.S.-made Tomahawk and Norwegian-built naval strike missiles and it’s possible that both, as well as other types of missiles, may be made in the country later this decade, Babbage said.
“Both sides of Australian politics want to see this capability operating here,” he said.
