On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth 439,387,261 USD to produce MGM-140 ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) ballistic missiles for Taiwan.
Image: Lockheed Martin
The contract modification increases the cumulative value of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement for Taiwan to 896,708,696 USD. Work will be carried out at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, and is expected to be completed by February 28, 2031. Full funding was obligated when the modification was awarded.
In the Republic of China Army, the missiles will arm M142 HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) launchers. Taiwan initially ordered 11 launchers in 2020, later increasing the total to 28. On August 10, 2025, the Taipei Times, citing military sources, reported that the government in Taipei was interested in raising the number to 57. Ultimately, on December 17, 2025, Taiwan received approval to purchase another 82 launchers, bringing the planned total to 110.
Deliveries of the first batch began in October 2024, with the systems assigned to the Army’s 58th Artillery Command. The first live-fire exercise took place on May 12, 2025, at the Jiupeng training range near Manzhou in Pingtung County. The system was also tested by the Army Command in June 2025.
The procurement packages also included munitions for the launchers, including the MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles discussed here. Taiwan initially requested 64 missiles, followed by another 84 in 2022 and a further 420 in 2025, for a total of 568 ballistic missiles.
The 610 mm MGM-140 ATACMS long-range missile, with a range of 70–300 km, is supplied for export in the M57 ATACMS-U (Unitary) configuration. It carries a 221 kg WDU-18/B high-explosive fragmentation warhead fitted with proximity and impact fuzes. Under an agreement signed by Lockheed Martin and Germany’s Rheinmetall AG on July 7 this year, the missiles are also expected to be produced in Europe in the future.
The Polish Armed Forces also operate MGM-140 ATACMS missiles. Poland ordered 30 of them together with 20 M142 HIMARS launchers under the Homar-A program. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Australian armies are introducing the ATACMS successor, the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), and the United Kingdom is also set to join the program.