Lockheed Martin won a $1.1 billion contract to meet "urgent needs" for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems from the U.S. military and foreign customers, a new Pentagon notice reads amid a spike in planned procurement in this year's budget request.

The undefinitized contract action, announced Wednesday, funds full-rate production of Lot 17 HIMARS launchers for the Army and Marine Corps, along with foreign military sales to Australia, Canada, Estonia, Sweden and Taiwan.

This fiscal year 2027 budget request asks for $746 million to procure 96 HIMARS -- which is a $684 million upsurge compared to last year’s request for just six launchers. It’s also a far cry from the Army’s previous FY-27 prediction of $93 million for 12 launchers, according to the future years defense program from the Pentagon’s FY-25 budget request.

“The Army intends to procure additional M142 HIMARS launchers in direct support to ongoing fleet expansion associated with Army transformation,” FY-27 Army procurement justification books say.

The large production capacity boost and foreign military sales have contributed to a drop in unit cost for HIMARS, from $10.3 million in FY-26 to $7.8 million in FY-27, according to the Army budget books.

Work and funding under the new contract action will depend on each individual order; work is slated to finish by April 30, 2028, the notice says.

-- With research support from Real Time Defense