US Army Tactical Missile System Passes Second Flight Test - Lockheed Martin

As part of the US Army's TACMS Service Life Extension Program inventory refurbishment effort, the modernized missile includes new state-of-the-art guidance electronics and added capability to defeat area targets without leaving behind unexploded ordnance, according to the statement of US defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A second of five tests of the modernized Tactical Missile System (TACMS) has been successfully completed, which will also made the system complaint with the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, US defense contractor Lockheed Martin said in a press release on Monday.

"As part of the US Army's TACMS Service Life Extension Program inventory refurbishment effort, the modernized missile includes new state-of-the-art guidance electronics and added capability to defeat area targets without leaving behind unexploded ordnance," the release stated.

Lockheed Martin explained that the system’s modernization process "disassembles and demilitarizes TACMS Block 1 and 1A sub-munition warheads, which do not comply with the Convention on Cluster Munitions of 2008, replacing them with new unitary warheads."

The upgraded TACMS was fired from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher, known by its acronym HIMARS, at a target approximately 53 miles away. The warhead precisely engaged and destroyed the target, demonstrating the missile's Proximity Sensor Height of Burst enhancement, the release noted.

The missile carries a high explosive fragmentation warhead useful in destroying targets and personnel underground and underwater, and against heavily armored targets.