The United States plans to build a separate plant for the production of ammunition for the HIMARS rocket launcher, The Wall Street Journal writes.
The plant is planned to be opened on the territory of a military base on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. The rapid depletion of ammunition in Ukraine and the Middle East has made it difficult for the US defense industry to quickly replenish stocks. President Joseph Biden's administration is seeking to establish several additional production lines in allied countries for the production of missiles.
Lockheed Martin, which produces the GMLRS missiles for the HIMARS MLRS, plans to hire Australian engineers, train the workforce and transfer the necessary technology to Canberra to manufacture the munitions. At this time, GMLRS missiles are produced at only one plant in the American state of Kansas.
According to the WSJ, the first batch of munitions for HIMARS will be partially assembled at a plant in the US and then undergo final assembly in Australia. Tests of the first batch of ten Australian-made missiles are planned to begin at the end of 2025. By 2030, local production should increase to a thousand munitions per year.
"We need to produce not 300 GMLRS per year, but 3,000," Australian Air Marshal Leon Phillips said.
Although the GMLRS missiles will initially be assembled from imported components, Australia plans to set up its own production lines for key parts: engines and warheads, to create weapons other than the GMLRS. Sydney is already involved in the development of long-range Precision Strike Missiles, which are to replace ATACMS.
According to the WSJ, there is a shortage of qualified specialists in Australia, and difficulties in transporting components can create an additional obstacle for large shipments of ammunition.
The US began supplying HIMARS to Ukraine in June 2022. As of the end of 2023, Washington has transferred about 40 such systems to Kyiv. With their help, the Ukrainian army successfully destroyed ammunition depots of the russian armed forces.
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