On March 17, the Australian government has announced the signing of 2 key Memorandums of Understanding with the United States that advance plans to produce key ammunition in Australia.

One MoU, the “155mm Ammunition Co-Production”, authorises the transfer of United States intellectual property, and aligns production standards for 155mm artillery ammunition. The other MoU, even more important, is for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System Co-Assembly and enables the assembly of a first batch of this munition type in Australia already this year 2025. This is a key milestone in the plans to have sizeable GMLRS production in Australia.  

Thanks to this latest MoU and to previous agreements, a new facility will be constructed for the production of rockets with the stated aim of hitting a manufacturing rate of up to 4,000 rockets a year from 2029.

The Australian factory is enabled by the partnership established with Lockheed Martin Australia, and will create hundreds of new jobs.

These investments are part of the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise, the Australian government strategy to establish a sovereign production and support capability for key complex ammunition.

The MoU is backed by a new Foreign Military Sales authorization from the US to Australia covering, according to the Australian government, “more than 300 rockets”. The value quoted by Australia’s government is circa 147 million Australian dollars, and this actually clears up a misunderstanding caused by the wording of the FMS authorization as published on March 10 by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

The US release authorized a $91.2 million sale of 54 “rounds” of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System-Alternate Warhead (GMLRS-AW) rounds. The news has been widely repeated by various outlets interpreting “rounds” as rockets, but this would have given an unitary cost far above any known value for GMLRS rockets. 54 rounds, in literal terms, would be just 9 pods of 6 rockets. The Australian mention of “over 300 rockets” suggests 54 is the number of pods (324 rockets), leading to a unitary cost closer to what we would expect. In the FY 2025 US Defense budget request, a M31 Unitary rocket unit cost is around 120,000 USD, an AW 143,600 USD. The Extended Range is still enormously more expensive (over 479,000 dollars) due to being still in production infancy.

The US authorization also mentioned how the purchase would support work “to uplift industry as a new source of supply”.

Australia also has access to Unitary and Alternate Warhead rockets, including on Extended Range body-motors, thanks to the inclusion of 190 pods of munition in the August 2023 authorization for the procurement of 22 M-142 HIMARS launchers.

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