Desert drills help fine-tune army's light artillery system.

The Army and Marine Corps new lightweight artillery platform--scheduled to enter low-rate production in early 2003--could be ready for deployment within a few years. But despite an overall successful testing of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, soldiers are still concerned about some software bugs.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, the contractor for HIMARS, is expecting an order of 34 launchers from the Army and two from the Marine Corps, said Becky Withrow, business development director.

The company is currently working under a $102 million engineering and manufacturing development contract for eight launchers--six for the Army and two for the Marine Corps. The company recently delivered the two Marine launchers.

During a war-fighting experiment this summer called Millennium Challenge, the Army employed in live combat exercises at Fort Irwin, Calif., three HIMARS prototypes that have been undergoing testing at Fort Bragg, N.C. for the past two and a half years. Future production systems will include improvements, based on feedback from soldiers who tested the prototypes, Withrow said.

HIMARS is a C-130 transportable, early-entry, artillery platform that can launch the entire family of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) munitions with a range of eight to 300 km. The HIMARS is designed to engage and defeat tube and rock-et artillery, air defense concentrations, trucks, light-armor and personnel carriers.

"The role of the HIMARS is to give us the capability to actually deploy with the initial entry forces," said Capt. Hurley Shields, the commander of battery 327. "It gives the commander on the ground a deep strike capability, which wasn't there before with forward MLRS, because it took a long time to actually get follow-on forces back in country.

Hurley's unit was making last minute preparations for a mission rehearsal late at night when they had to suppress the enemy's air defense artillery systems so that friendly attack helicopters would have the freedom to maneuver in the air space.

The HIMARS is built on a 5-ton truck chassis and the cab is a modified version of the basic truck steel cab used in the Army's family of medium tactical vehicles (FMTV). The cab was customized, to protect HIMARS crews from shrapnel, fumes and other hazards that come with launch operations.

The HIMARS consists of a carrier, a fire control system that computes all fire mission data and a launcher-loader module. According to Lockheed Martin, HIMARS will be fully interoperable with, and use the same command and control systems as the heavy MLRS launchers, known as the M270 and the M270A1.

However, the push for commonality created some software-related problems, because the M270 and the HIMARS are entirely different systems that don't always interpret commands the same way, said Sgt. Kevin Sellon. For example, Sellon told National Defense, sometimes the HIMARS software does not range the targets and "just locks up."

The fire control panel is "basically the main problem here," he said. "When it freezes, you have to restart and realign." To get back up and running again, "it takes approximately about nine minutes." Such delays could have detrimental consequences in actual combat, he said.

HIMARS and the 270 have some common software, but there are some differences, said Craig Vanbebber, a Lockheed Martin spokesman.

While the M270A1 can fire two six-rocket pods and two ATACMS missiles, HIMARS can only fire six rockets and one ATACMS missile. In terms of firepower, HIMARS can cover approximately half a kilometer area, compared to a full kilometer for the 270.

"There has to be some software difference to tell them that they have only one pod," he said. The soldiers helped redesign the fire control panel so that it would be more user friendly, said Vanbebber. The new systems entering low-rate production will have the same software as the current prototypes, he added, but the bugs will be fixed.

The fire-control system on the production model would have additional memory, said Dan Hicks, who works at the Army's G-8 force development office. "The increased memory would allow it to change munition types faster," he said.

Other changes have been made to the ballistic algorithm of the software, which was necessary for non-guided munitions.

"We obviously had to add in software to allow to fire the newer smart munitions [such as] guided MLRS, ATACMS Block II and also the guided unitary rocker currently under development, to allow the HIMARS to fire those new munitions," Vanbebber said.

Soldiers suggested several changes to the HIMARS, which will be incorporated in the production vehicles, said Vanbebber.

For example, soldiers wanted the cab to be laid out so that radios and other equipment could be within easy reach. Soldiers also asked if the hinges could be modified to make it easier to open the cab doors. That change is being implemented on all FMTV trucks, said Vanbebber. Another suggested change was to redesign storage containers to better accommodate battlefield gear.

To make it C-130 transportable, HIMARS had to be lightened to less than 35,000 pounds. According to Hicks, the current prototypes are well under that weight threshold.

"I was told that they are under 34,000 pounds with the EMD model," he said. "They have redesigned the boom and hoist reload system--they are now using forged aluminum and stainless steel castings in the base assembly of the chassis--and they have also improved the cab."

Nevertheless, for Millennium Challenge, my had to request special waivers for the HIMARS prototypes to be flown in C-130s. "We've got a few problems with some of the pilots saying, no it's not going to fir, but we have done it 100 times and we never had a problem," said Sellon.

He said the suspension system can lower the cab approximately 18 inches and with the central tire inflation system, almost all the air can be let out of the tires. "It gives us about 6 inches of clearance," Sellon said. "It is not a lot of room, but we get it on the plane." The production models will be lighter, he said.

HIMARS will be deployed with rapid reaction units, such as the 82nd Airborne Division or the 101st Mountain Division. Its primary mission will be deep attack. The vehicles usually find hiding points to prevent detection, but during the Millennium Challenge exercise the designated fire point left the battery of three HIMARS completely in the open, making them vulnerable to enemy attack.

The HIMARS can travel cross-country at 35 miles per hour and on highways at 65 miles. In combat situations, he said, "we would have better support and better coordination with our anti-air assets."

Each HIMARS platform has to remain at a distance of at least 800 meters from each other, for safety reasons, explained Sellon. There is a surface danger zone behind the launchers because of the blast, while in front of the vehicle there are hazards posed by missile debris.

It makes sense for the launchers to be spread out, so in case of enemy attack, "you may lose one launcher but not lose all three."

Sellon said that the HIMARS can hit targets much faster than the 270. "The 270 is electromechanical and this here is hydro-mechanical," he said. "To lay on target or to get the launcher pointed at the target that we need to shoot only takes 15 seconds. The M-270 takes about a minute to get it up and over, and once you lay on the target it's another 30 seconds."

Each launcher may get a different mission. "One launcher can be a counter battery player to help an infantry company that is trying to assault a hill, while the next launcher might have an anti-air defense mission to help helicopters where they need to go," Sellon said. "We know where to stay so that we are not crossing each other."