Soon production will ramp up to 300 rockets a year ffs.....Local production (assembly?) of GMLRS to commence shortly, they've got this up and running a lot quicker than I anticipated.
Australia kicks off local GMLRS production
Australia will begin manufacturing Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missiles this month following the opening of a new production facility at Port Wakefield in South Australia.www.defenceconnect.com.au
I assume you feel 300 is insufficient?Soon production will ramp up to 300 rockets a year ffs.....
How much should we pay now for GMLRS rockets that we can’t currently use or store? I can imagine Army’s training requirements as with every other corps, will involve minimal actual live firing of anything except reduced range practice rockets. If the Regiment fires more than a couple of dozen or so live GMLRS rockets per year, it will be the best funded Regiment we’ve ever had…
How much EO storage capacity should we then build? What sort of warstock would you deem sufficient?
How much are you willing to spend on ordnance we only “might“ need one day and what gives way to allow this to be funded?
How much surge capacity does this facility have? Can it expand it all?
Just whinging about quantities doesn’t add much to the debate...
I'm with old faithful. 300 does seem low. I would have thought there is excess demand for these from the increasing number of global HiMARS, M270 and the European GMARS launchers (everybody seems to have one now) to establish a larger production run.I assume you feel 300 is insufficient?
How much should we pay now for GMLRS rockets that we can’t currently use or store? I can imagine Army’s training requirements as with every other corps, will involve minimal actual live firing of anything except reduced range practice rockets. If the Regiment fires more than a couple of dozen or so live GMLRS rockets per year, it will be the best funded Regiment we’ve ever had…
How much EO storage capacity should we then build? What sort of warstock would you deem sufficient?
How much are you willing to spend on ordnance we only “might“ need one day and what gives way to allow this to be funded?
How much surge capacity does this facility have? Can it expand it all?
Just whinging about quantities doesn’t add much to the debate...
I get that the real prize is PrSM manufacture, however the GMLRS are kind of the potatoes (of a meat and potatoes metaphore). GMLRS is supposed to be a cheap, mass produced missile. I kind of think we should have a large shed of them. Right next to the large shed full of 155mm shells.
Perhaps more important though is the depth of the supply chain behind this factory. If I remember the earlier plan was to commence with assembly of overseas made parts only. I assume this is what has been announced and that probably is the reason for the low production (this would still be the crawl phase of the crawl, walk, run strategy)
If we use the 300 annual orders to then stand up local sub manufacturing, such as the rocket motor etc, then OK. These suppliers probably need time to get ready so could not manage large orders.
I still have not seen any public information on rocket motor manufacture. Have I missed something on that?
Apart from the logistical issues and the cost issues of building munitions we don’t need and can’t presently use (in any sort of cost effective manner) I am quite certain L-M has not licenced us to export GMLRS in competition to their own production.I'm with old faithful. 300 does seem low. I would have thought there is excess demand for these from the increasing number of global HiMARS, M270 and the European GMARS launchers (everybody seems to have one now) to establish a larger production run.
I get that the real prize is PrSM manufacture, however the GMLRS are kind of the potatoes (of a meat and potatoes metaphore). GMLRS is supposed to be a cheap, mass produced missile. I kind of think we should have a large shed of them. Right next to the large shed full of 155mm shells.
Perhaps more important though is the depth of the supply chain behind this factory. If I remember the earlier plan was to commence with assembly of overseas made parts only. I assume this is what has been announced and that probably is the reason for the low production (this would still be the crawl phase of the crawl, walk, run strategy)
If we use the 300 annual orders to then stand up local sub manufacturing, such as the rocket motor etc, then OK. These suppliers probably need time to get ready so could not manage large orders.
I still have not seen any public information on rocket motor manufacture. Have I missed something on that?
Global demand may well be high and in time we may well see orders placed, but no company starts building huge production numbers from scratch and neither will GWEO.
It’s no different to the artillery round issue. We were going to produce 10,000 rounds a year. Everyone b*tched and moaned about how few that is, based off Ukrainian wartime usage rates of artillery, whilst completely ignoring the fact that we are not at war, that we are not being provided wartime levels of funding and resourcing and Ukraine itself didn’t even manufacture 10,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition before the war started either.
Our artillery production is also being scaled to increase capacity to 100,000 rounds per year if it becomes necessary and likewise I imagine GMLRS production will have an ability to scale up as well.
But no-one starts out like that and suggestions we should are futile. The need isn’t there, the funding isn’t there, the resourcing isn’t there and two months ago we weren’t capable of producing a single GMLRS rocket. Going from that to a sustained 300 missiles a year is a big achievement, but it is a starting point, not likely the end point.
Issues such as the lack of domestic rocket motor production as you point out mean that we aren’t really producing “anything” ourselves - yet. Arguing we should be scaling up before we can even do things like that are pointless.
Much better doing what we are doing, which is building out the capability to produce a sustainable production line, continue to produce the capability to build all the elements of the chosen systems and develop the longer term ability to scale up when we need to.