LEMC partners with Lockheed Martin to modernize tactical missile systems

Photo By Natasia Kenosky | Lockheed Martin representatives tour Letterkenny Munition Center’s Multiple Launch Rocket System Family of Munitions facility.  

CHAMBERSBURG, PA, UNITED STATES

03.01.2018

Story by Natasia Kenosky 

Letterkenny Munitions Center

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – In early 2018, Letterkenny Munitions Center (LEMC) began working on a new program in partnership with Lockheed Martin designed to modernize the U.S. Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

The Precision Fire Rocket and Missile Systems Project Office, Huntsville Alabama, established the ATACMS Modernization (AMOD) program to replace an older ATACMS variant warhead, which had reached its service life limit, with a more modern warhead, by updating the electronics and installing a new warhead. The modernization program replacement warhead will both bring the missiles into compliance with Department of Defense policies on cluster munitions and reset the missile’s shelf life. The U.S. Army awarded the program to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, which has offices in Grand Prairie, Texas and Camden, Arkansas.

Lockheed Martin’s decision to partner with LEMC creates a cost savings to the US Army and utilizes capability found only at LEMC, part of the U.S. Army’s Organic Industrial Base.

LEMCs Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) Family of Munitions (MFOM) team already performs testing, inspection, depot, and field-level maintenance for ATACMS, as well as software updates to the MFOM Common Test Devices (MCTD), the field test set for MFOM assets across the globe.

In 2016, LEMC was designated as the Army’s Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for ATACMS; Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and Low-Cost, Reduced-Range, Practice-Rocket Missile Maintenance by the Secretary of the Army.

The partnership with Lockheed Martin builds on LEMC’s ATACMS expertise. The AMOD program will sustain a usable inventory for the U.S. Army, maintain an industrial base for the Army’s only long range precision strike munition, and provide cost savings by reusing select pieces of hardware. LEMC will download and demate the old ATACMS variant to recover hardware for reuse in Lockheed Martin’s new production builds.

“In keeping with LEMC tradition, we move at the speed of relevancy; the speed of operations,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey J. Ignatowski, LEMC Commander. “Lockheed Martin and LEMC are strategic partners with the ability to adapt to today’s challenges while preparing for tomorrow’s threats and this partnership demonstrates that commitment.”

LEMC is located on Letterkenny Army Depot and is a Government-Owned, Government-Operated installation. LEMC conducts regional and global distribution of munitions, provides missile maintenance, and conducts demilitarization of munitions for the U.S. Army in support of the Department of Defense and international partners to provide readiness to the Warfighter.

• Date Taken: 03.01.2018
• Date Posted: 03.01.2018 15:23
• Story ID: 267778
• Location: CHAMBERSBURG, PA, US