Home Americas Lockheed delivers first Mid-Range Capability prototype battery to US Army

Lockheed delivers first Mid-Range Capability prototype battery to US Army

MRC Typhon prototype for US Army
Photo: US Army

Lockheed Martin has delivered the first of four Mid-Range Capability (MRC) battery prototypes it developed for the United States Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technology Office (RCCTO) as part of the Typhon weapon system program.

MRC is comprised of launchers, missiles and a battery operations center developed to address surface threats. It is designed to field a Mark 41 vertical launching system that would be capable of launching Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) and Tomahawk missiles.

Building from existing US Navy missile and launcher systems, the MRC provides a fires capability that has not existed in the US Army since the implementation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 1987.

Now that the first prototypes have been delivered, the program will continue work on fielding the capability to soldiers by fall 2023.

“The MRC achieves operational capability in fiscal year 2023 upon completion of system testing, training, and delivery of the missiles. Delivering the ground hardware first allows the soldiers to train on the equipment, create doctrine for the system, and develop tactics, techniques, and procedures,” RCCTO said.

“Our collaboration with the US Army enabled us to form a deeper understanding of its most critical mission needs,” said Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin general manager and vice president. “That partnership enabled us to leverage technologies across our ships, launchers and combat systems programs to design, develop, integrate and quickly deliver a solution to meet the Army’s mission requirements.”

US Army photo of the MRC battery handover

“The MRC rapidly progressed from a blank piece of paper in July 2020, to the soldiers’ hands in just over two years. The RCCTO team, as well as our joint service and industry partners, delivered this hardware so soldiers can begin training as quickly as possible,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, Director of the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO).

MRC is poised to enable the Army to strike targets at ranges between 500 and 1,800 kilometer. According to RCCTO, the MRC provides a land-based, ground-launched system with a range between the Army’s Precision Strike Missile and the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon.

MRC is the latest mission capability Lockheed Martin developed for RCCTO to help the Army transform into a more agile, multi-domain force. It provides a combined operational capability to address specific threats to penetrate, dis-integrate, and exploit targets critical to the joint fight.