The Pentagon will pay Lockheed Martin more than $520 million to replace guided rockets sent to Ukraine.
|
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has awarded more than $520 million in contracts to replace thousands of guided artillery rockets it has sent to Ukraine since June 1, according to a statement emailed to reporters on Monday morning.
The contracts, awarded to the defense contractor Lockheed Martin between Oct. 21 and Nov. 2, are for the purchase of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System munitions — guided artillery rockets fired by mobile launchers called HIMARS — that have been credited with destroying scores of Russia’s command centers as well as its ammunition and supply depots in Ukraine. The munitions are usually called Gimmlers, after the abbreviation GMLRS.
“These awards demonstrate the significant impact GMLRS are having on the battlefield as a vital combat capability,” William A. LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top acquisitions official, said in the statement.
The number of rockets that will be purchased is unclear. A spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, which led the contracting process, was not immediately able to provide an answer.
According to government budget documents, the average purchase price of a single GMLRS rocket has varied between roughly $100,000 and $130,000 each since 2012. Using that figure, the contracts would account for approximately 4,000 replacement rockets.
The GMLRS rockets carry warheads with 200 pounds of explosives, using satellite guidance to strike in a range of about 52 miles — the longest reach of any weapon the United States has sent Ukraine to date. The Defense Department has said it has provided 16 HIMARS launchers to Ukraine thus far and has also given Kyiv the funds to purchase 18 more, though those will take years to be manufactured and delivered.
In June, a spokeswoman for the company told The Times that Lockheed had made more than 60,000 GMLRS rockets since the program began more than 20 years ago, and that it has sold them to a number of countries, including Bahrain, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Poland, Romania, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
— John Ismay
|
Responses:
|
