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Army Procurement Requests

Rocket and Missile Systems

The Army requests $112.3 million for 1,026 rockets for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).³  FY 2005 is the third year of a gradually increasing, ten-year program to procure 140,004 of such rockets, which are designed to replace the “aging M26 [MLRS rocket] inventory.”  These rockets, often used for counter-battery fire, are launched from MLRS or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers.  GMLRS technology has the potential to reduce the humanitarian harm of cluster munitions in two ways.  First, the new rockets are precision-guided, with inertial and global positioning system (GPS) guidance systems.  As a result, they are more likely to hit their target, and troops will need to use fewer of them.  Second, they provide a unitary alternative for the MLRS, which reduces Army reliance on cluster munitions.  According to the budget documents, some, although not all, of the rockets will carry a unitary warhead instead of submunitions.  Earlier models only delivered submunitions.  The new submunition version is a cooperative program undertaken with France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Such technological developments are especially significant because the hundreds of older MLRS rockets used in Iraq were major killers of civilians.  The Army relied heavily on the MLRS because Iraqi artillery had a longer range than the regular U.S. artillery.  The only available warhead for the MLRS, however, contained submunitions.  In order to take out a single artillery piece in a civilian neighborhood, U.S. ground troops would launch a standard volley of six rockets containing about 4,000 DPICMs with a sixteen percent dud rate that spread over an area with a .6-mile radius.  The humanitarian impact was devastating, and duds endangered both soldiers and civilians.  Military officers ranging from field commanders to senior CENTCOM officials called for a unitary alternative. 

The GMLRS, especially in its 200-pound unitary form, addresses some of those concerns.  The version with 414 DPICM submunitions, however, will still excessively endanger civilians if used in populated areas and if the DPICMs are not replaced or retrofitted to reduce the dud rate.  Plans for a submunition with “significantly reduced hazardous duds” will not reach “full rate production,” or production for use in combat, until FY 2006.⁴  The Budget Justification Sheet does not specify how many of each type of warhead (unitary or submunition) will be procured, important information that should be made public. 

In 2001, then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen issued a policy memorandum stating that all submunitions reaching a Milestone 3 production decision in FY 2005 and beyond would have a dud rate of less than one percent (hereinafter the Cohen policy).⁵  In other words, submunitions that reach full rate production during the first quarter of FY 2005 must meet the new standard.⁶  Under this policy, GMLRS carrying old DPICMs should not be procured.⁷  

In another budget line, the Army has asked for $61.5 million for fifty-six Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) missiles.⁸  These missiles are launched from an MLRS or HIMARS and usually carry 300 or 950 spherical submunitions.  U.S. ground forces used at least 330 of these in Iraq in 2003, and they caused a number of civilian casualties.  This request, however, is for the Block 1A Quick Reaction Unitary (QRU) model, a unitary alternative to the submunition model.  It also includes a GPS guidance system to increase accuracy.  The Army plans to procure a total of 2,741 ATACMSs by FY 2008, 278 of which are QRUs.

In addition to the GMLRS rockets and ATACMS missiles, the Army seeks money for their different launcher systems.  It requests $47.6 million for production support, testing, and fielding of the relatively new M270A1 MLRS launcher and $24 million for modification to the same.⁹  Its improvements include allowing for “faster engagement on time-sensitive” targets, which could have humanitarian benefits by increasing chances that the intended target is hit.  The Army wants $173.3 million to procure thirty-seven HIMARS and $.5 million to make modifications to existing units.¹⁰  It has also requested $97.4 million for related RDT&E.¹¹  The HIMARS is a lightweight version of the MLRS that launches six instead of twelve rockets or one instead of two missiles.  These line items, all part of multiyear programs, do not require procurement of cluster munitions but are worth noting because they are often used to launch them.