The U.S. Army just pulled the trigger on a massive shift in long-range firepower. Five different defense companies are now racing to build a rocket that can fly 1,000 kilometers and still fit inside a standard HIMARS launcher. That is roughly 620 miles. It doubles the current reach of the Precision Strike Missile, turning mobile artillery trucks into strategic theater-shaping assets.
If you've followed defense procurement over the last decade, you know how rare it is for the Pentagon to spread prototype money across five distinct contractors instead of handing a blank check to an incumbent prime. On September 29, the Army issued Other Transaction Authority agreements to Anduril, Castelion, Lockheed Martin, Mach Industries, and RTX for the PrSM Increment 4 program. The message is clear. Washington wants speed, outside-the-box propulsion ideas, and real competition before locking in a massive long-term winner.
What the Army Actually Wants From Increment 4
Building a missile that reaches 1,000 kilometers is tough. Doing it while keeping the exact same outer dimensions so it slots into existing M142 HIMARS and M270 multiple launch rocket systems is where things get brutal for engineers.
The service laid down three non-negotiable demands when it briefed industry earlier this year. First, the range floor is 1,000 kilometers. Second, compatibility with current launchers is mandatory. Third, the weapon must possess the terminal guidance required to hunt moving targets at sea, such as enemy warships, alongside relocatable land targets like mobile air defense batteries and hidden tactical launchers.
That capability profile completely alters tactical math in regions like the Indo-Pacific. A HIMARS battery hiding on a contested island chain won't just threaten local armor; it can project precision destructive power across vast maritime zones.
The Contenders and Their Different Bets
Lockheed Martin is the giant in the room. They built the original PrSM Increment 1, which replaced the aging Army Tactical Missile System, and they're already deep into Increment 2 with its ship-killing seeker. For Increment 4, Lockheed has been pushing hard on a ramjet propulsion concept. They want to pair a traditional rocket booster with an air-breathing ramjet engine. Back in June, Lockheed and L3Harris successfully completed ground tests of the booster-to-ramjet handoff. That was the primary technical hurdle standing in the way of actual flight tests.
Then you have Castelion, a younger defense firm making serious waves. They're developing the Blackbeard hypersonic missile, a weapon the U.S. Navy already tapped for its Multi-mission Affordable Capacity Effector program. Bringing startups like Castelion into the mix shows the Pentagon is tired of waiting a decade for traditional acquisition timelines to yield results.
Anduril and Mach Industries are keeping their specific designs under wraps, but both have built reputations for fast iteration, software-driven autonomy, and non-traditional hardware manufacturing. RTX brings massive aerospace engineering weight, returning to the table after earlier propulsion research efforts.
How the Fly-Off Will Play Out
The competition isn't sitting on paper. The Army is forcing these five teams into a hard two-round prototype race. Fiscal 2027, which kicks off in October, will see initial prototype work culminate in a competitive fly-off.
The Army will ruthlessly cut the field after that first round. Vendors whose hardware proves mature enough will advance to follow-on agreements and a final fly-off in fiscal 2028. This rapid-fire prototyping approach relies on Other Transaction agreements, bypassing standard bureaucratic red tape to see hardware burn fuel in the real world.
Why This Matters Right Now
For years, the U.S. military relied on short-to-medium-range tactical rockets that kept friendly forces within striking distance of peer adversaries. The arrival of PrSM Increment 1 proved the concept, with early variants reportedly tested past 400 kilometers and utilized in combat operations in March against targets in Iran.
Yet 400 kilometers isn't enough when facing modern anti-access and area-denial networks in vast theaters. Doubling that range to 1,000 kilometers means artillery units can strike deep behind enemy lines while staying hidden thousands of accounts away from immediate retaliation.
Expect the next two years to feature intense flight testing across the western test ranges. Watch for which companies can successfully master sustained ramjet flight or hypersonic glide dynamics inside a standard tactical rocket tube. The winners will define deep-strike warfare for the next thirty years.
