The White Sands Missile Range Museum’s Missile Park

M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS)

The M142 HIMARS system developed out of the need to replace the M270 MLRS, a tracked vehicle that had served as the Army’s standard missile artillery system since the early 1980s. Although the idea of replacing the MLRS was initially lukewarm at best, the Persian Gulf War, started in 1990, showed just how many disadvantages it had. With one MLRS system weighing in at 54,500 pounds, flying the systems to the Army’s buildup location in Saudi Arabia proved incredibly taxing on allied airlifting capabilities.

The new HIMARS was designed to be lightweight while also being compatible with many of the systems in use on the MLRS. Designers opted to replace the MLRS’ M993 loader/launcher, based on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, with a wheeled chassis based on the Army’s 5-ton Medium Tactical Vehicle. Although the HIMARS sacrificed armor for mobility and only carried one rocket pod to the two carried by the MLRS, the system’s weight was lowered to 35,800 pounds.

In order to provide the most flexibility in missile artillery for the combatant commander, the HIMARS is able to field and fire a variety of missiles, known as the MLRS Family of Munitions (MFOM). The MFOM missiles offer an effect range from the M26 rocket’s 20 miles to the new Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which can reach up to 310 miles.

The HIMARS in the WSMR Museum’s Missile Park is a mockup vehicle designed, fabricated, and tested at White Sands in 1993. The mockup was realistic and functional enough that it fired both an MLRS rocket and an ATACMS missile while it was located at Launch Complex 33. The HIMARS Program was approved for full production in 1999.