The annual U.S. defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act, calls to help replenish the Pentagon’s supply of missiles.
The new Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) agreement would replenish supplies of artillery shells and missiles, including the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles.
The bill will grant the Department of Defense permission to begin buying and using multi-year contracting for 1700 ATACMS missiles and 700 HIMARS launchers.
Apparently, Pentagon has addressed lessons learned from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will purchase many more munitions to have stock for future conflict.
The ATACMS was developed in 1991 to provide the Army with a long-range tactical artillery missile. Utilizing the exact launch vehicle as other Army rockets and missiles, the ATACMS holds a long history of use and has seen extensive testing over the years.
The missiles were used extensively in both Operation Desert Storm (1991) and in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) ground wars for shaping operations by the joint force, Joint Special Operations Forces and Army Land Component Command operational levels. There is one missile per launching assembly (missile pod) with two missiles per launcher load in the M270/ M270A1 Multiple-Launch Rocket System and one missile in the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher.
