The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced in a press release today that they have had the first successful launch of the OpFires Medium-Range Hypersonic Missile off of a United States Marine Corps logistics truck as the chassis for the Transporter-Erector-Launcher, an impressive feat which has the potential to standardize the design across the Marine Corps and Army.
From the press release:
“DARPA’s Operational Fires (OpFires) program has successfully executed its first flight test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The OpFires system achieved all test objectives, including first ever use of a U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) logistics truck as a medium-range missile launcher, missile canister egress, stable flight capture, and use of U.S. Army inventory artillery fire control systems to initiate the test mission. Lockheed Martin built the system, which includes a Northrup Grumman rocket motor, and conducted the test.
The test demonstrated integrated technology maturation of key enabling components including the first stage rocket motor, missile canister, and missile round pallet (MRP). The MRP is designed for use with the load handling system available on USMC and Army logistics vehicles, eliminating the need for a bespoke OpFires transporter erector launcher (TEL).”
If DARPA can develop the OpFires system to be modular so that it can be installed on U.S. Army and Marines cargo trucks, then the services would have a lesser cost surface-to-surface missile solution that could be coordinated across branches to conduct strikes. “This is a promising step toward a TEL on-demand capability for accurately firing medium-range missiles from highly agile, readily available logistics trucks that are already in both the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps inventory,” said Lt. Col. Joshua Stults, the DARPA program manager for OpFires.
