The United Kingdom could be the first international partner to join the U.S. Army-led Precision Strike Missile program.
According to a press release from the U.S. Army, British Army reaffirmed those intentions in a memorandum of understanding signed on Jan. 21 between the commanding general Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill Maj. Gen. Ken Kamper and Lt. Col. Jamie Linsdell, representing the United Kingdom Army.
The document signifies the unwavering commitment between the U.K. and U.S. to Fires interoperability at the multinational corps level.
The MOU provides a framework for collaboration on the near, mid and far-term interoperability program of work and associated deliverables to achieve readiness, capability and conceptual goals within the Fires Warfighting Function at the multinational, corps level and below.
Brig. Gen. Jonathan Swift also said the most significant step forward for Great Britain was the confirmation of their intentions to begin the process for entering into the agreement on the precision strike missile.
Kamper agreed the precision strike missile has “tremendous capability. It’s a product of what our Army started a few years ago with these cross-functional teams,” he said. “This can be a tremendous capability that we’ll need if we fight in a near-peer conflict, large scale ground combat type scenario, so I’m glad you all will have it too.”
The Precision Strike Missile, also known as PrSM, will be a surface-to-surface, all-weather, precision-strike guided missile fired from the M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The baseline missile, which will be developed and fielded to engage a wide variety of targets at ranges up to 499 km, will emphasize imprecisely located area and point targets. Primary emphasis for follow-on spirals will be on increased range, lethality and engagement of time-sensitive, moving, hardened and fleeting targets.