{"id":22269,"date":"2026-05-23T23:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T23:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/22269\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T23:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T23:24:15","slug":"lockheed-martin-northrop-grumman-and-thales-complete-warhead-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/22269\/","title":{"rendered":"Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Thales complete warhead test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icas2026.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42548 size-full\" title=\"ICAS26 Media Partnership Assets 728 x 90\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ICAS26_Media-Partnership-Assets_728-x-90.jpg\" alt=\"ICAS26 Media Partnership Assets 728 x 90\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"  \/><\/a>Lockheed Martin Australia, in partnership with Northrop Grumman Australia and Thales Australia, has conducted the successful detonation of a co-produced warhead at a test range near Bourke, NSW\u2014marking another significant milestone in establishing Australia\u2019s sovereign guided weapons capability. Produced and demonstrated in just 11 weeks, the effort underscores the speed and agility of Australia\u2019s defence industry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The warhead, manufactured by Northrop Grumman with support from Thales, is designed for use in Lockheed Martin\u2019s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS)\u2014a precision-guided munition employed by the Australian Army\u2019s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher, capable of striking targets at ranges beyond 70 km.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The joint effort represents a critical step toward establishing a domestic guided weapon warhead production capability in Australia. The successful demonstration highlighted a low-risk, rapid pathway to capability while underscoring the strength of collaboration across Australian defence industry partners.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis demonstration showcases the strength of Australian industry working together to design, manufacture and test production-quality warhead technologies in-country,\u201d said Jeremy King, Chief Executive Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand. \u201cIt marks an important step forward toward achieving the Commonwealth\u2019s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) objectives. Lockheed Martin is committed to our partnership with Thales Australia and Northrop Grumman Australia and to the development of GMLRS-related warheads essential for achieving a sovereign guided weapons capability for Defence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLockheed Martin has established a GMLRS factory in Australia, Northrop Grumman Australia is the OEM of the warhead of choice,\u201d said Jeff Connolly, CEO Thales Australia and New Zealand. \u201cThales Australia is committed to leveraging our enduring and sovereign defence capabilities and to work with both parties and establish in-country manufacturing to increase supply certainty and deliver the Australian Defence Force capability. This demonstration highlights the success of the approach and proves the partners can deliver this system and are on the path to more complex system production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a GWEO strategic partner, Lockheed\u00a0Martin Australia, with industry partners, is accelerating the development and production of guided weapons in Australia. The project demonstrates warhead production using existing resources and facilities, while highlighting the benefits for Australia through industry uplift, local employment opportunities, and economic growth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNorthrop Grumman\u2019s production experience, program planning and manufacturing capabilities are well suited to support accelerating sovereign warhead manufacturing in Australia,\u201d said Rob Denney, Northrop Grumman Australia Country Executive. \u201cIn collaboration with Lockheed Martin, Thales Australia, the Commonwealth and local suppliers, we\u2019re committed to accelerating manufacturing of long-range guided weapons and enhancing a sovereign Australian capability that is scalable, affordable and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/#News_Bulletin_Form\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22782 size-full\" title=\"APDR_Bulletin_728X90\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/APDR_Bulletin_728X90.gif\" alt=\"APDR_Bulletin_728X90\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For Editorial Inquiries Contact:<br \/>Editor Kym Bergmann at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#563d2f3b78343324313b37383816203338222324373b33323f3778383322\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><br \/>For Advertising Inquiries Contact:<br \/>Group Sales Director Simon Hadfield at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#592a303436377731383d3f303c353d192f3c372d2c2b38343c3d303877373c2d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificdefencereporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Web-RatesSpecs-AUD.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/APDR_728x90_leaderboard.gif\" alt=\"leaderboard\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lockheed Martin Australia, in partnership with Northrop Grumman Australia and Thales Australia, has conducted the successful detonation of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13059],"tags":[16492,13999,14694,5719],"class_list":["post-22269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thales","tag-guided-multiple-launch-rocket-system","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-northrop-grumman-australia","tag-thales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}