Precision Strike Missile (PrSM)

Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is the Army's next-generation surface-to-surface missile program, intended to replace and improve on the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). It supports the Army's Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) modernization priority and is funded in the Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Army appropriation under Budget Activity 5, System Development and Demonstration. PrSM is part of an integrated fires effort that links missile development with evolving common fires mission command, shared development tools, and annual testing. Those activities are intended to improve survivability, resilience, and effectiveness against advanced threats while providing evidence for closing performance gaps.

PrSM belongs to the Multiple Launch Rocket System Family of Munitions (MFOM) and is designed for launch from existing M270A2 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) platforms. Baseline requirements include a maximum-range threshold of 400 kilometers, lethality against designated targets, survivability in a threat environment, and a launch pod missile container holding two missiles. The missile is designed to meet cluster munition and insensitive munition requirements. Its open-system approach supports later changes as threats and operational needs evolve.

CO3 / Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) funds follow-on work on Increment 1, which gives joint commanders around-the-clock, all-weather indirect precision fires against critical and time-sensitive targets. Its target set includes air defenses, missile launchers, command-and-control centers, assembly areas, and other high-payoff targets across the multi-domain battlefield. The two-missile pod increases the volume of fire available from a launcher while field artillery supports Army, joint, and coalition operations. Increment 1 is intended to disrupt an adversary's combat maneuver and air-defense operations, not merely extend the reach of existing fires.

Increment 1 development proceeded through an accelerated acquisition strategy. Designated acquisition category IB in 2017, the program was directed in 2018 to pursue an early operational capability by fiscal year 2023; enhanced technology-maturation and risk-reduction work then supported prototype flights and engineering and manufacturing development. Army leaders approved a single-vendor approach in 2020, and the contractor established a pilot production line, completed subassembly qualification, and recorded 18 successful flight tests. Milestone C and initial operational test and evaluation were completed in fourth-quarter FY 2025, with a full-rate production decision planned for second-quarter FY 2026. FY 2027 CO3 funding continues qualification of the M-Code guidance set and exportable proximity sensor, alongside cybersecurity, continuous software development, and blocking upgrades.

DL2 / PrSM Increment 2 integrates a multi-mode seeker into the Increment 1 missile to engage moving maritime targets and critical, time-sensitive, relocating, relocatable, or imprecisely located land targets while retaining Increment 1 target capabilities. Its draft capability development document also proposes launch from M270 and HIMARS launchers on maritime platforms. DL2 became a separate project code in FY 2026, continuing integration previously funded under CO3 rather than starting a new effort. The Army Acquisition Executive selected the major capability acquisition pathway in 2022; the program's technology readiness at transition from science and technology placed the earliest expected early operational capability deliveries in FY 2029.

FY 2027 Increment 2 funding supports seeker maturation, integration, engineering, software, assured positioning, navigation and timing, M-Code work, and flight-test support. Plans call for a third prototype flight, a seeker critical design review, subsystem qualification, development of a pilot production line, and an early-operational-capability production delivery order. Prototype testing began in FY 2026 and is intended to inform the fourth-quarter FY 2026 milestone B review and a decision on long-lead components. The project schedule then places engineering development testing in FY 2028, an early operational capability and limited user test in FY 2029, and milestone C in FY 2030.

DL4 / PrSM Increment 4 pursues a distinct extended-range objective: engaging moving maritime and relocatable land targets at more than 1,000 kilometers. It combines improved motor technology, an improved airframe, a developmental warhead, and an Increment 2 seeker, while retaining an open architecture and a HIMARS-compatible MFOM pod holding at least two missiles. Established as a project code in FY 2027, DL4 continues earlier Long Range Maneuverable Fires science-and-technology work. FY 2027 funding initiates prototype design and development under an other transactional authority agreement, with a competitive full-missile fly-off planned for fourth-quarter FY 2028. The rapid-prototyping effort is intended to deliver qualification hardware and early-operational-capability missiles; its schedule includes a system requirements review in FY 2027 and milestone B in FY 2029.