On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) from Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, signed a contract worth 226,850,900 USD (899.26 million PLN) for the production of long-range ballistic missiles MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) for export recipients under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) procedure.
Photo: US Army
The contract includes the production of guided missiles and launching assemblies. The work will be carried out in Grand Prairie, Texas, with a completion date of December 30, 2028. All funds were released upon signing the contract and come from the FMS program funds for Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Morocco.
It is planned to use components from existing missiles stored by the US Army. A thorough technical inspection will be conducted, along with the replacement of critical elements such as warheads, which will extend the storage and operational life by another 10 years.
The successors to the ATACMS missiles will be the PrSM (Precision Strike Missile), which have already begun to be introduced into the arsenal of the US Army. Besides the US Army, the first export user of the PrSM missiles will be Australia, which joined the program on August 12, 2021.
Poland
Under the agreement dated February 13, 2019, for the delivery of 20 M142 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers (including 18 for one rocket artillery battalion and 2 for the Artillery and Armament Training Center) worth 414 million USD, the contract includes, among other things, 30 containers each housing a single 610-mm long-range missile with a range of 70-300 km in the export version M57 ATACMS-U (Unitary) with a 221-kg WDU-18/B high-explosive fragmentation warhead and proximity and impact fuzes. The first production contract in this matter was signed on June 24, 2019.
On February 7, 2023, Poland received approval to purchase an additional 486 HIMARS launchers, which included 45 more ATACMS missiles. On September 11 of the same year, the Ministry of National Defense approved a framework agreement on this matter. The implementation contracts are expected to be signed later this year. Therefore, the production contract signed on Tuesday still pertains to the 2019 intergovernmental agreement.
Estonia
On December 3, 2022, the Estonian Ministry of Defense announced the signing of an intergovernmental agreement with the United States worth over 200 million USD for the delivery of 6 M142 HIMARS launchers. The package, approved on July 15, 2022, included 18 ATACMS ballistic missiles.
Latvia
On December 28, 2023, the Latvian Ministry of Defense announced the signing of an intergovernmental agreement with the United States worth 179.8 million USD for the delivery of 6 M142 HIMARS launchers. The package, approved on October 24, 2023, included 10 ATACMS ballistic missiles.
Lithuania
On December 16, 2022, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense announced the signing of an intergovernmental agreement with the United States worth over 200 million USD for the delivery of 6 M142 HIMARS launchers. The package, approved on November 9, 2022, included 18 ATACMS ballistic missiles.
Morocco
According to available information, on April 11, 2023, the U.S. Department of State approved the sale of 18 M142 HIMARS launchers to Morocco, including a package with 40 ATACMS missiles for up to 524.2 million USD. However, there is no information on the signing of an intergovernmental agreement.