The American company Lockheed Martin and the German Rheinmetall will be engaged in the joint development of a European jet
What is known
The system is called GMARS (G - Germany).It will have a wheeled chassis and will be a replacement for the MARS II multiple launch rocket system (pictured below), which uses the Bradley tracked armored vehicle as a chassis. The new development was announced by Howard Bromberg, vice president and deputy for strategy and business development of the air and missile defense division of Lockheed Martin.
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Germany handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine fiveMARS II systems, which are an upgraded European analogue of the M270 MLRS. The launcher includes two containers, each of which can hold up to six missiles, depending on the caliber.
34 MARS systems left in service with the BundeswehrII. This information was confirmed by a representative of the German armed forces. At the same time, the press service did not go into details regarding the operational readiness of rocket launchers.
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The new development will receive a launchermanufactured by Lockheed Martin and chassis by Rheinmetall. GMARS will look like HIMARS, but will have a larger chassis and two containers instead of one. The launcher will be located on a Rheinmetall HX 8×8 vehicle (pictured below), which will be built in Vienna. Its length will be approximately 12 meters, which is 5 meters longer than FMTV for HIMARS.
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Germany plans to sell GMARS to othersEuropean countries. It is expected that the new missile systems will be put into service in two years. Some components for GMARS will be imported from USA. In terms of projectiles, GMARS will be able to use approximately 80% of the HIMARS ammunition range.