Designed to replace the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic strike missile, the Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is narrower (two can fit in the place of one ATACMS) and flies farther and is also (supposed to be) cheaper. Further upgrades will include an active multi-mode seeker head that can target moving vessels, making the PrSM a true land-based anti-ship missile (LBASM) system when fired from the 6×6 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) operated by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) or the U.S. Army’s Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).
PrSM’s objective range of 60 to 650 kilometers (37 to 403 miles) gives it a much greater reach than the USMC’s Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS’s Naval Strike Missile has a range of 100+ nautical mile (115-mile or 185 kilometers)) and is mounted on a modified and uncrewed 4×4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)).
While the “big anti-ship warfare (ASuW) missile stick” for the U.S. Navy will be the reprogrammable Maritime Strike Tomahawk cruise missile with its unrivaled range of over 1,000 miles, the PrSM’s range falls between the Maritime Strike Tomahawk and the NMESIS and the 100+ mile Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Only Tomahawk and Harpoon are carried aboard U.S. warships equipped with the Mark 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS). (Sixteen Naval Strike Missiles will be carried in their own canister launchers by the FFG 62 USS Constellation-classfrigates equipped with 32 Mark 41 VLS cells).
With a length of 156 inches (396 centimeters) and a diameter of 17 inches (43 centimeters), the PrSM will fit inside the Mark 41 VLS as the VLS-fitting Tomahawk cruise missile has a length of 247 inches (627 centimeters) and a width of 23 inches (58 inches).
Thus, would it make logical sense to equip U.S. Navy’s VLS warships, or the ships carrying the Mark 70 Payload Delivery System, with the Precision Strike Missile? This concept of turning an Army missile into a naval one is not that far-fetched as the U.S. Army’s Patriot PAC-3 MSE Surface-to-Air missile is being studied to fit inside a Mark 41 VLS.
Naval News asked Lockheed Martin who referred all questions about a naval PrSM to the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy did not reply to media inquires on the Mark 41 VLS PrSM concept.
Naval News then asked military analysts for their opinions on this PrSM inside a Mark 41 concept.
The RAND Corporation’s Dr. Bradley Martin, a retired U.S. Navy captain and Director, Institute for Supply Chain Security, replied via email, “PrSM is a ballistic missile, which at the moment still does not have a multi-mode seeker that will allow it to track and engage moving targets. Such a seeker is envisioned, but the delivery for this capability is still somewhere in the (relatively near) future.
“PrSM can be made to fit into a MK41 VLS cell, but the Navy is generally looking for weapons that most effectively advance its tactical need and fit within the architecture that it has already developed. For anti-surface warfare, it is in the process of introducing the Maritime Strike Tomahawk and the SM-6, which together and once fully delivered will meet most of the Navy’s AsUW requirements. That is not to say that a system like PrSM wouldn’t be a useful addition, but we then get into issues of quantity, efficient production, and program management. Adding more and different types of systems can be an acquisition headache and a sustainment nightmare.
“There’s no doubt that PrSM might fill capability gaps and, once it receives a multi-mode seeker, will be more capable than Harpoon. However, the cost-benefit analysis might not make it an ideal candidate to go on MK-41 equipped ships,” wrote Dr. Martin to Naval News.
“My understanding is that PrSM would be a backup or auxiliary for the Navy, their primary long range anti-ship missile being Maritime Strike Tomahawk. The two missiles seem to be quite similar, but the Navy has a lot of experience with Tomahawk. That said, it’s useful to have alternatives because war games show that the Navy quickly runs out of preferred munitions.”
Mark Cancian, a retired USMC colonel and Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) International Security Program
The 2026 “Invasion of Taiwan scenario CSIS wargame” Mr. Cancian was referring to can be found here.
Naval News has also reached out to the Heritage Foundation and they acknowledged the media inquiry but did not provide analysis or comment on a naval Mark 41 VLS PrSM before publication.
With the PrSM just entering service and production for the U.S. Army as of December 2023, it is too soon to draw definitive conclusions on if the PrSM will actually become an anti-ship weapon aboard U.S. Navy Mark 41 VLS-equipped warships. The PrSM will surely fit inside the Mark 41 VLS cell, but only time will tell if the U.S. Navy sees a requirement for an anti-ship missile with a range between the Maritime Strike Tomahawk and the Naval Strike Missile and Harpoon.
