Romania’s Senate unanimously voted on Monday the law draft for the acquisition of three long-range ground to ground HIMARS missile launching systems for a total of EUR 1.5 billion, VAT included.
That was reported by romania-insider.com.
Each purchased system will have 18 launching installations. The HIMARS systems will be operated by Romania’s Ground Forces. Defence minister Mihai Fifor said that Romania would make the payment for the first HIMARS system by the end of this month.
In September 2017, the State Department has cleared High Mobility Artillery Rocket System sale to Romania, according to a Defense Security Cooperation Agency announcement. According to the announcement, Romania has requested 54 HIMARS launchers and 81 unitary Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and 81 alternative warheads GMLRS. The request also includes 54 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and 24 Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data Systems (AFATDS), which is the fire-control system for HIMARS.
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According to the Army Recognition, the M142 HIMARS carries six rockets, or one MGM-140 ATACMS missile mounted on a 6×6 Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) five-ton truck chassis. Lockheed Martin designed the HIMARS to be as small as possible, with the ability to ‘shoot-and-scoot.’
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The HIMARS can fire the full range of rockets and can launch the entire Multiple Launch Rocket System Family of Munitions (MFOM) to a maximum range of 40 km, including HE-FRAG (High-Explosive Fragmentation) and cluster. It also fires newly developed extended range guided munitions from a range of 60 to 100 km.