PrSM production contract awarded to Lockheed

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract worth up to $4.94 billion to produce Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) for the US Army, according to a 31st March company press release. The Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity award will support an expansion in missile production and enable the US Army to order PrSM more efficiently, the press release states. 

The expected completion date is March 2030, according to the US DoD’s contract announcement from the 28th March. Lockheed has received several production contracts for PrSM, the fourth was placed in March 2024 and valued at $219 million for early operational capability (EOC) missiles, that award followed shortly after the first delivery of production missiles in December 2023. 

February 2025 saw a production qualification flight test for PrSM, which it successfully completed and some details of a production tooling award valued at $120 million allowing Lockheed to increase production to 400 missiles per year. The previous EOC orders appear to have been designed to support testing of the missile, which has had an intensive series of flight tests in the past 12 months, including soldier-led firing trials.  

This contract presumably paves the way for full-rate production of the design, which is to be made available in several variants. Presumably, it will take Lockheed some time to reach the 400 missiles per year target. 

Tech profile: PrSM

PrSM is a tactical short-range ballistic missile with a range of 500 km. It is designed to engage priority targets in short timeframes and provide US forces with the ability to disrupt an adversary’s supply chains and command posts. It has also been tested in naval engagements against moving targets. The first version is known as Increment 1, with extensive plans to develop the missiles by 2030 including the addition of a seeker for dynamic targeting, and other increments with cluster munition warheads. As part of the US Army’s Multi-Domain Task Forces, it will enable resilient strikes as part of a layered effector network, which will include hypersonic and Tomahawk cruise missiles. 

Calibre comment

The US Army is working to develop its long-range precision strike capabilities through systems like PrSM, which may prove more survivable to adversary air defence networks than the conventional guided rockets fired by the M142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS. This is combined with an effort to increase the number of launchers available to US artillery forces, ensuring that they can meet the demands for fire support that they would likely experience during a war. However, magazine depth is as important as capable weapons, there is little value in having a handful of very capable weapons. This contract award to Lockheed Martin may go some of the way to establishing healthy stocks of PrSM. For example, if each missile costs $2 million, this contract would enable the US to procure up to 2,470 missiles.  

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 1st April, 2025.