A US HIMARS vehicle has flown to Christmas Island aboard a Canadian CC-177 (C-17A), offloading and then conducting a simulated mission firing a long range PrSM missile guided by targeting data provided by the Australian Defence Force.
This was all part of the diverse Talisman Sabre 2025, the largest ever multinational military exercise conducted in Australia.
HIMARS is only now entering ADF service with the first two of 42 delivered earlier this year.
The Australian vehicles conducted their first ever live fire mission, along with US and Singaporean HIMARS, in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area on 14 July.
The Christmas Island exercise demonstrates the growing capability to conduct “shoot and scoot” missions against maritime targets, using the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) vehicles.
That’s termed HIRAIN (High-Mobility Infiltration Rapid And Intensive Navigation), with the vehicle flown into position aboard a C-17A or A400M, conducting a fire mission then rapidly re-embarking and flying away.
The firing location could be any austere airstrip on the Australian mainland, island or regional nation.
For Australia, the key emerging capability is developing and delivering accurate target information. Australia is acquiring 42 HIMARS vehicles. The basic HIMARS missile, the GMLRS, has a range around 70 kilometres, with Australia beginning to produce these missiles around the end of this year.
However, the HIMARS-launched PrSM missile, in its latest increments, can hit moving targets at ranges exceeding 1000 kilometres.
Talisman Sabre 2025 has featured a number of first-time launches, underlying growing capabilities by Australia, the US and allies to strike maritime targets with ground launched missiles.
On Tuesday, members of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Second Artillery Brigade launched a pair of Type 12 Surface-to-Ship Missile at the Beecroft Weapons Range, on the NSW south coast.
Type 12 is an advanced vehicle-launched sea skimming missile developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Latest versions have a range around 400 kilometres.
In the trial at Beecroft, the missiles performed a lengthy attack profile, covering around 100 kilometres to hit the target 25 kilometres out to sea. Both missiles arrived simultaneously.
Last week, the US Army conducted the first Mid-Range Capability (Typhon) live fire exercise outside of the continental US as part of TS25.
The missile successfully struck and sunk a target at sea. Usually the SM-6 missile is ship-launched. Quite where this occurred isn’t clear from the US reporting of the event, but it appears to be the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.
Colonel Wade Germann, Commander of the US 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) said this exercise validated our targeting and C2 interoperability with our partner unit the Australian 10th Brigade through the Land Effects Coordination Cell.
“We have set the stage to develop and deploy combat-credible, multi-domain capabilities forward in support of the Combined and Joint Force,” he said according to a report by Naval News.