Australia test-fired the first domestically manufactured GMLRS missile from a HIMARS launcher at Woomera Test Range, South Australia on April 9, 2026.
The government committed $320 million to integrate Australian suppliers into GMLRS production at the Port Wakefield facility opened in December 2025.
The Australian Army successfully test-fired the first domestically manufactured Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System missiles at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia on April 9, 2026, a milestone that places Australia in exclusive company.
Australia is now the only country outside the United States to manufacture the GMLRS missile — a distinction that carries both industrial and strategic weight as Canberra accelerates its push to build a self-sufficient defense manufacturing base capable of sustaining its forces without relying on foreign supply chains.
The test was conducted at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia, with the missiles fired from the Australian Army’s Lockheed Martin M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. The Australian government officially announced the successful firing on April 13. Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy did not mince words about what the test represents. “Making missiles in Australia is central to Australia’s national defence resilience,” Conroy said. “This successful test-firing is a major milestone for Australia’s sovereign guided weapons capability, demonstrating concrete progress in strengthening our national self-reliance and delivering a defence future made in Australia.”
The test-firing follows the opening in December 2025 of a new dedicated GMLRS production facility at Port Wakefield in South Australia. That facility was purpose-built to meet U.S. manufacturing standards, ensuring that Australian-produced GMLRS rounds are fully compatible with American inventories — a deliberate design choice that positions Australian-made missiles to serve not only the Australian Army but potentially allied partners as well. The facility currently supports approximately 20 on-site manufacturing roles, with additional employment generated across a broader national supply chain expected to expand as Australian suppliers are progressively integrated into GMLRS component production.
The financial backing behind this effort is substantial. The Australian government has committed $320 million specifically to uplift domestic suppliers and introduce Australian companies into the GMLRS supply chain, progressively increasing local content in missile production over time. That investment sits within a far larger framework — Australia’s $21 billion sovereign munitions program under the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise — signaling that GMLRS production is not a standalone experiment but the opening chapter of a sustained industrial transformation.
The GMLRS is a GPS-guided surface-to-surface rocket capable of striking targets with high precision at ranges that far exceed what conventional tube artillery can achieve. Fired from the M142 HIMARS launcher — a wheeled, highly mobile platform that can be transported by aircraft and repositioned rapidly — the missile gives ground forces a strike tool that combines mobility with reach. A single HIMARS battery can threaten targets across a wide area, relocate before enemy forces can respond, and reload quickly for follow-on fires. Australia’s accelerated 42-launcher acquisition under an AU$1.6 billion investment assigned the systems to the 10th Fires Brigade in Adelaide, with the Army expecting HIMARS to deliver more than a ten-fold increase in striking range.
The April 9 test was not the first time an Australian HIMARS has fired in anger. This is the third live-fire conducted by Australian HIMARS since their delivery in March 2025, demonstrating the accelerated delivery and training systems in place to achieve initial operational capability. What made this particular shot different is that the rocket itself came off an Australian production line rather than arriving pre-packaged from an American factory — a distinction that matters enormously when planners think about what happens to ammunition resupply in a prolonged conflict.
Canberra has been explicit about where this capability leads. Australian-made GMLRS missiles are intended to establish the industrial foundation for manufacturing even more advanced long-range fires munitions domestically, including the Precision Strike Missile and, further out, hypersonic weapons. The Precision Strike Missile, also fired from HIMARS, can engage targets at ranges beyond 500 kilometers — a capability that would give Australia genuine deep-strike reach across the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific. Building the workforce, supply chain infrastructure, and quality-control processes through GMLRS production now is the deliberate strategy for being ready to manufacture those more advanced systems at scale when the time comes.
As the only GMLRS manufacturer outside the United States, Australia is aligning industrial output with operational readiness, reducing dependence on foreign supply chains while reinforcing coalition firepower across the Indo-Pacific. That alignment between what Australian factories can produce and what Australian soldiers need in the field — without waiting on overseas shipments — is the core logic driving the entire program.
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