The MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS ) is an American short-range tactical ballistic missile. It is launched from the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), and the GMARS. Depending on the variant, it has a maximum range of up to .
ATACMS originated in the Joint Tactical Missile System (JTACMS) program, which began in 1980 to replace the MGM-52 Lance. After the United States Air Force withdrew from the program in 1984, the missile was redesignated the Army Tactical Missile System and its development continued under the U.S. Army. Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) later won the missile design contract, and ATACMS entered service in 1991, before evolving through several variants with different guidance systems, warheads, and ranges.
ATACMS has been used in combat in the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the 2026 Iran war. It has undergone modernization through the ATACMS Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) and is being replaced in U.S. service by the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM).
History Pre-development The concept of a conventional tactical ballistic missile was made possible by the doctrinal shift of the late Cold War, which rejected the indispensability of an early nuclear strike on the Warsaw Pact forces in the event the Cold War went hot. The AirLand Battle and Follow-on Forces Attack doctrines, which emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, necessitated a conventional-armed (hence much more accurate) missile to strike enemy reserves, so the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command sponsored the Simplified Inertial Guidance Demonstrator (SIG-D) program.
Within this program, Ling-Temco-Vought developed a solid-fuel analog of the MGM-52 Lance missile, designated T-22, with a new RLG-based inertial guidance package, which demonstrated unprecedented accuracy. In 1978, DARPA started the Assault Breaker technology demonstration program to attack armor formations with many mobile hard targets at standoff ranges. It used the T-22 missile and the Patriot-based Martin Marietta T-16 missile with cluster warheads.
In March 1980 the US Army decided to replace the Lance with a similar nuclear-tipped solid-fuel missile with simplified usability dubbed the Corps Support Weapon System (CSWS). In a year, concerned about the fact Army started to develop the weapon with a similar objectives to interdict the second-echelon massed targets to already developing by USAF's Conventional Standoff Weapon (CSW) program with only difference of surface/air-launched and both positioned as the part of same Short Range Nuclear Forces of Non-Strategic Nuclear Force Program, the Department of Defense subdued CSWS Project Office (Provisional) to MICOM renaming it to the System Development Office. That new office acquired the Assault Breaker effort thus started to manage the Assault Breaker and CSWS efforts together, that way slowly summing up and moving forward the weapon development progress for the JTACMS program to be created.
Development Development of the missile now known as ATACMS started in 1980, when the US Army decided to replace the Lance with a similar nuclear, but also chemical or biological, tipped solid-fuel missile dubbed the Corps Support Weapon System (CSWS). Concerned that two branches were developing too many similar missiles with different warheads, the Department of Defense merged the program with DARPA's Assault Breaker in 1981, and with United States Air Force (USAF)'s Conventional Standoff Weapon (CSW) in 1982–1983.
The new missile system, designated Joint Tactical Missile System (JTACMS), soon encountered USAF resistance to the idea of an air-launched ballistic missile. As a result, in 1984 the USAF ended its participation in the non-cruise missile portion of the program, leading to the missile being redesignated as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
Details In fiscal year 1982, the United States House Committee on Appropriations approved the Corps Support Weapon System (CSWS) program, which was the successor to the US Army Assault Breaker program in cooperation with DARPA, was merged with the Conventional Standoff Weapon (CSW) US Air Force and renamed the Joint Tactical Missile System (JTACMS), the goal of which was to create a weapon that meets the combined requirements of both programs, namely, that it can attack and destroy the second-echelon of enemy forces, in particular armored vehicles, and scatter submunitions against such vehicles. In this project, it was planned to use the technologies of Assault Breaker to develop a surface-to-surface weapon system, which should be used for the so-called "deep interdiction" (some sort of preventive measure, the prototype of which is air interdiction used by air force) – by which is meant the destruction or causing significant damage by the joint activity of air and ground forces to the specific distant from the front line targets, such as buildings, bridges, oil refineries and other industry, that way slowing down logistics or providing or supporting and, therefore, advancing enemy troops with the aim of tactical, even albeit short-term, superiority of allied troops, which can significantly affect the military theater in a positive way, – using conventional or nuclear weapons on the battlefield. Although both services were to participate in the development of the weapon, it was the US Army who led the JTACMS program.
The program was initially led by Colonel James B. Lincoln, who was a full-time and continuous student at numerous military schools (from 1960, when he graduated from the United States Military Academy, until 1980, when he graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces), in 1977 on the basis of Defense Systems Management College graduated with a thesis of "Managing Total Acquisition Time: A New Priority for Major Weapon Systems", where, in particular, he focused on the significant decrease in the pace of procurement of the main missile complexes compared to 1971 and in 1980, heading the TRADOC program at Fort Sill in the direction of MLRS, spoke rather defiantly about field army systems, where, in particular, he compared the struggle of the US Army for limited resources during the development of new systems with bow wave, which prevents the ship from accelerating, and military projects are either canceled or refinanced by the state, with waves diverging from it, and was noticed by DARCOM. In April 1984, he was transferred to be the head of the TOW project, and in the current project he was replaced by Colonel William J. Fiorentino, who by that time had already been the head of the Pershing Project Manager's Office for more than 5 years, which during his leadership developed two-stage solid fuel mobile-launched ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead both short (Pershing) and medium (Pershing II) ranged. Dr. Billy Tidwell who was program manager during JTACMS while and Acting Program Manager for a short period.
In FY 1984 Congress prohibited the development of a nuclear warhead for JTACMS, despite the Army claiming it could place US forces at a disadvantage if it became necessary to make the system nuclear-capable. In FY 1985 the Army denied having R&D funds programmed for the development of a JTACMS nuclear warhead.
On May, 22nd, 1984 the US Army and USAF signed an agreeing on a list of 31 initiatives. Item 18 on that list states about services will develop a different types of same rocket for each of it – preferences for Army was a development of shorter-ranged ground-launched system, for air-force – air-launched system.
JTACMS was intended to be a jointly funded program with NATO allies; the United Kingdom, Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy were initially contacted about joining the program, with the British and Germans expressing interest, while the others declined due to lacking adequate funds.
Starting from at least the end of year 1986, the ATACMS program was led by Colonel Thomas J. Kunhart.
Production In March 1986, Ling-Temco-Vought won the contract for the missile design. The system was assigned the MGM-140 designation. The first test launch came two years later, thanks to earlier experience of the company with previous programs.
In 2007, the US Army terminated the ATACMS program due to cost, ending the ability to replenish stocks. To sustain the remaining inventory, the ATACMS Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) was launched, which refurbishes or replaces propulsion and navigation systems, replaces cluster munition warheads with the unitary blast fragmentation warhead, and adds a proximity fuze option to obtain area effects. Deliveries were projected to start in 2018. The ATACMS SLEP is a bridging initiative to provide time to complete analysis and development of a successor capability to the aging ATACMS stockpile, which could be ready around 2022.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 authorized the production and procurement of up to 1,700 additional ATACMS, but this was not funded by the 2023 Defense Appropriations Act.
Whilst domestic orders remain zero, in recent times Lockheed Martin has enjoyed great success on the export market securing a 440 million dollars worth of orders for various international customers, including Taiwan, Poland and Germany. These missiles are being produced at a new industrial site in Camden, Ark, as well as a new facility run by Rheinmetall in Unterluess, Germany, which will produce the ATACAMS under licence. Deliveries from the Camden site began in 2024 with the Rheinmetall site to begin production at a later date.
Stockpile upgrades In January 2015, Lockheed Martin received a contract to develop and test new hardware for Block I ATACMS missiles to eliminate the risk of unexploded ordnance by 2016. The first modernized Tactical Missile System (TACMS) was delivered in September 2016 with updated guidance electronics and added capability to defeat area targets using a unitary warhead, without leaving behind unexploded ordnance. Lockheed was awarded a production contract for launch assemblies as part of the SLEP in August 2017. In 2021, Lockheed Martin was contracted to upgrade existing M39 munitions to the M57 variant with a WDU-18/B warhead from the Harpoon missile by 2024.
A plan announced in October 2016 to add an existing seeker to enable the ATACMS to strike moving targets on land and at sea was terminated in December 2020 to pursue other missile efforts.
Replacement Starting in 2016, the Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) program began to be developed, which was later renamed Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), with the idea of replacing ATACMS missiles with the "Increment 1" phase (version) of PrSM. PrSM Increment 1 missiles began delivery in late 2023.
Versions + Specifications M39 Block I M39A1 Block I M48 QRU M57 Block IA Unitary Mass (est) Unknown Unknown Length Diameter Guidancetype INS GPS aided INS Warhead 950 x M74 bomblets 300 x M74 bomblets WAU-23/B unitary warhead Warheadweight Fuze M74 APAM bomblets each initiated by an M219A1E1 fuze FMU 141/B point detonating fuze Tri-mode (point detonating, proximity, and delay) fuze Motor Solid-propellant rocket motor Max speed Unknown Unknown Unknown Min range Max range
M39 (Block I) – missile with inertial guidance. It carries 950 M74 anti-personnel and anti‑materiel (APAM) bomblets, each about the size of a baseball and weighing , which are dispersed across a circular area approximately in diameter, and effective against parked aircraft, ammunition dumps, air defense systems, and gatherings of personnel, but not against armored vehicles. The size of the affected area can be changed by modifying the height at which the payload is released. The range of Block I is . The M74 has a reported failure rate of 2%.