CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Australian army has test-fired its first-ever locally assembled Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, a key step toward eventually producing long-range strike weapons locally rather than importing them.
The milestone occurred at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia, with the rocket fired from an M142 HIMARS launcher.
It was the third live-fire event for an Australian Army HIMARS since the first units arrived in Australia in March 2025. The country has ordered 42 HIMARS launchers to date.
A Lockheed Martin production facility in Port Wakefield, South Australia, opened last December. The plan over the next several years is to increase the amount of locally built components, moving toward true domestic production rather than mere assembly of foreign-made parts.
“Australia is now the only country outside the United States to make the GMLRS missile, providing opportunities for Australian industry to enter into global supply chains,” said Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy.
He described this first firing as “a major milestone for Australia’s sovereign guided-weapons capability, demonstrating concrete progress in strengthening our national self-reliance and delivering a defense future made in Australia.”
GMLRS is the poster child for Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise, which seeks to give the country a sovereign production capability for various weapons.
A bilateral Australian-U.S. government agreement signed in March 2024 envisages production of up to 4,000 GMLRS rockets annually, ten times what Australia needs for itself. Therefore, exports have always formed part of Lockheed Martin’s thinking.
James Heading, Director and General Manager of Missiles and Fire Control at Lockheed Martin Australia, said: “We’re not just looking at Australian consumption, we’re looking at the global supply chain.”
Heading said GMLRS production will ramp up in 2026, as Lockheed Martin Australia moves beyond a risk-reduction activity and into stage one production.
He told Defense News his company is looking at the processes, procedures and software that will integrate Australian production directly into the U.S.-based Camden, Arkansas, facility so that it stays in lockstep with the American build cycle.
However, GMLRS is the shortest-range rocket available for HIMARS, and it hardly meets the criteria of Canberra’s vaunted goal of long-range “impactful projection.”
Lockheed Martin Australia told Defense News that the first logical progression would be manufacturing a 93-mile-range Extended Range variant.
“Importantly, Australian-made GMLRS missiles will provide a pathway for future long-range fires munitions – such as the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and hypersonic weapons – to be locally manufactured,” reads a statement by the Australian Department of Defence.
Australia and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperative PrSM production in June 2025, covering sustainment and follow-on development. The pact offered options for Australian assembly of PrSM.
Canberra is investing approximately US$224 million over ten years to become a full PrSM cooperative partner, as well as US$106 million over the next five years to acquire an initial batch of missiles.
Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.
