United States Approves Possible Sale of GMLRS Worth $535 million to Finland
The Department of State has approved a potential sale of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) to the Government of Finland. Although the contents of the sale are yet to be finalized, the deal includes 400 GMLRS rounds and other related elements of program and logistics support for an estimated cost of $535 million.
According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s Congressional notification of the sale:
The Government of Finland has requested to buy one hundred fifty (150) M30A1 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Alternative Warhead (AW) (Steel Case), or M30A2 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Alternative Warhead (AW) Missile Pods with Insensitive Munitions Propulsion System (IMPS), or a combination of both; and two hundred fifty (250) M31A1 GMLRS Unitary (GMLRS-U) Warhead (Steel Case), or M31A2 GMLRS-U IMPS, or a combination of both. Also included is a Quality Assurance Team (QAT); transportation services; and other related elements of program and logistics support.
This is the third approval of a GMLRS sale to Finland, the first approval was granted by the Department of State in 2015, this sale included 90 M31A1 Unitary Missiles and 150 M30A1 Alternative Warhead Missiles. This was followed by an order of ER-GMLRS missiles in February of 2021, which was also approved by the Department of State. The latter order included 150 M30A2 Extended Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems – Alternative Warhead (ER GMLRS-AW) Pods; and 60 M31A2 Extended Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems – Unitary (ER GMLRS-U) Pods. This deal also marked the first Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of the ER-GMLRS.
In total, this order would bring the total GMLRS orders by Finland to 850 rounds. The GMLRS is fired from the Finnish Army’s M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), which Finland acquired from the Netherlands, Denmark and the United States between 2006 to 2014. The Finnish Army requested to upgrade 24 M270s to the Universal Fire Control System configuration in 2010.