{"id":18979,"date":"2026-08-18T07:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/?p=18979"},"modified":"2026-08-18T07:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:32:07","slug":"affordable-high-speed-strike-ahss-el-nuevo-programa-misilistico-del-us-army-para-batir-objetivos-a-1-000-km","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/?p=18979","title":{"rendered":"Affordable High Speed Strike (AHSS), el nuevo programa misil\u00edstico del US Army para batir objetivos a 1.000 km"},"content":{"rendered":"

El US Army ha iniciado el desarrollo del nuevo misil denominado Affordable High Speed Strike (AHSS), dise\u00f1ado para atacar objetivos a m\u00e1s de 1.000 km de distancia. El programa busca que esa fuerza disponga de la capacidad org\u00e1nica para batir blancos a grandes distancias, pero con un menor costo de producci\u00f3n que los misiles actuales de ese tipo, permitiendo adem\u00e1s garantizar su producci\u00f3n masiva en plazos m\u00e1s cortos. El misil debe ser capaz de destruir objetivos de alto valor operacional y para su dise\u00f1o, se eval\u00faan tanto vectores bal\u00edsticos tradicionales, como misiles de crucero con motores jet del tipo estatorreactor. El AHSS se podr\u00e1 lanzar desde plataformas existentes hoy, como los \u00a0M142 HIMARS, utilizando sus m\u00f3dulos contenedores de munici\u00f3n. Se prev\u00e9 tambi\u00e9n, integrarlos en la futura familia de veh\u00edculos lanzadores aut\u00f3nomos no tripulados CAML (Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher). Este nuevo programa responde a la urgente necesidad de reponer inventarios de misiles de largo alcance, tras el elevado consumo registrado en operaciones en curso en Medio Oriente. El programa incluye la colaboraci\u00f3n internacional de Australia y se estima que ser\u00eda de inter\u00e9s tambi\u00e9n del Cuerpo de US Marines.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. Army is on the hunt for a new lower-cost strike missile capable of hitting targets more than 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) away. The Affordable High Speed Strike (AHSS) missile could be more of a traditional ballistic missile-like weapon or feature an air-breathing propulsion system. AHSSs could be fired from new uncrewed launcher vehicles that the Army is pursuing separately, as well as certain existing crewed types like the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System<\/a>\u00a0(HIMARS). The service sees these future weapons as offering a particularly important new way to strike enemy air bases, air defense nodes, missile launchers, and other high-value targets within a particular theater of operations.<\/p>\n

AHSS was among the many programs the Army\u2019s Combat Capabilities Development Command\u2019s Aviation & Missile Center (DEVCOM AvMC) highlighted at its booth at the\u00a0annual Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium<\/a>\u00a0in Huntsville, Alabama.\u00a0TWZ<\/em>\u00a0was in attendance at this conference, which wrapped up yesterday.\u00a0Aviation Week<\/em>\u00a0was first to report<\/a>\u00a0on AHSS from this event.<\/p>\n

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A US Army M142 HIMARS launcher vehicle fires a 227mm guided artillery rocket. The service says this is one launcher that could be used to fire AHSS missiles in the future. US Army<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAHSS is an entirely new missile,\u201d a DEVCOM spokesperson said, according to\u00a0Aviation Week<\/em>. At the same time, the Army is also clearly in the very early stages of defining what it wants from this new weapon beyond general affordability and reach.<\/p>\n

A graphic on display at DEVCOM\u2019s booth at the SMD symposium showed renderings of two distinctly different notional missiles under the AHSS heading, as seen at the top of this story and below. One has a traditional ballistic missile-type design with a cruciform fin arrangement\u00a0at the tail end. The other notional missile has a more novel design with an air-breathing propulsion system feeding from an intake in the nose. In broad terms, the\u00a0intake has a style commonly associated<\/a>\u00a0with high-speed jet engines\u00a0such as ramjets and scramjets<\/a>. It also has a completely different tail configuration, as well as what appears to be a long, slender stabilizing strake visible along the right side of the body.<\/p>\n

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Aviation Week<\/em>\u2018s story also highlights the Army\u2019s current separate development of an entire new family of Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (CAML) vehicles. However, the current AHSS concept also includes \u201can option to be launched from a crewed HIMARS,\u201d the DEVCOM spokesperson said, according to that outlet.<\/p>\n

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The prototype uncrewed version of HIMARS seen here, called the Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (AML), was an important stepping stone to the CAML program. US Army The Autonomous Multi-domain Launcher (AML) prototype. US Army<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HIMARS, which uses a 6\u00d76 tactical truck as its base, fires munitions\u00a0via\u00a0standardized ammunition \u2018pods.\u2019<\/a>\u00a0As such, it seems likely that any other\u00a0launcher that makes use of these same pods<\/a>, such as the tracked\u00a0M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System<\/a>\u00a0(MLRS), would also be able to fire the future AHSS missile.<\/p>\n

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US Marines load an ammunition pod into an M142 HIMARS launcher during an exercise. USMC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis project directly supports Precision Fires capabilities by developing, maturing, and demonstrating affordable high speed strike missile technologies for responsive, mobile, deployable, survivable, and sustainable Army conventional theater strike weapons,\u201d the Army said about AHSS in its 2027 Fiscal year budget proposal, which was released earlier this year. The program will \u201cprovide hardware and software technologies demonstrated, including affordable advanced propulsion, complementary warhead, guidance, navigation and control technologies, and integration onto Army mobile launch platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Army needs affordable, responsive high speed strike capability to attack theater level targets, provide offensive counter-air capability, and be launched from Army mobile, deployable, and survivable platforms,\u201d the Army budget documents add.<\/p>\n

The specific mention of the offensive counter-air (OCA) mission set is interesting as it is far more commonly associated with air assets. However, it is simply defined as \u201coffensive operations to destroy or neutralize enemy aircraft, missiles, launch platforms, and their supporting structures and systems both before and after launch, and as close to their source as possible,\u201d according to the January 2020 edition of the U.S. military\u2019s official\u00a0Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms<\/a>. Long-range surface-to-surface missiles are very applicable for pursuing these objectives, something we will come back to later on.<\/p>\n

It is also worth noting that DEVCOM\u2019s graphic at the SMD Symposium used the exact same air-breathing missile render to represent the planned Increment 4 version of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). The baseline version of PrSM, or Increment 1, is a traditional short-range ballistic missile with\u00a0ability to hit targets at least around 310 miles<\/a>\u00a0(500 kilometers) away, if not further. The Army\u2019s current stated plan for Increment 4 is to acquire a new variant or derivative of PrSM with a range of at least 621 miles\/1,000 kilometers. For further context, the Increment 2 PrSM, which is in active development now, is an anti-ship-focused variant with a new seeker system, allowing it to engage moving targets. The Increment 3 plan is centered on new unspecified \u201cenhanced\u201d payloads, which\u00a0could include swarms of loitering munitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A look at the full DEVCOM graphic on display at the annual SMD Symposium this week. Jamie Hunter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Lockheed Martin rendering of an air-breathing missile design tied to its work on an Increment 4 PrSM concept. Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Army has also talked in the past about an Increment 5 variation of PrSM with even greater range. This would put it in the same general category, at least in terms of reach, as AHSS. As noted, DEVCOM has stressed that AHSS is distinct from other existing efforts.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, AHSS and PrSM are just two parts of a larger array of new longer-range strike capabilities the Army is working to acquire. The service has already fielded a\u00a0small number of Typhon systems<\/a>, which are currently capable of firing\u00a0Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) multi-purpose missiles<\/a>. Tomahawks can hit targets roughly 1,000 miles away. The Army is now pushing to field the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW),\u00a0also known as Dark Eagle<\/a>, as well. Last year,\u00a0new details emerged<\/a>\u00a0that put the maximum range of this weapon at around 2,175 miles.<\/p>\n

On top of this, defense startup Castelion is developing a ground-launched\u00a0version of its Blackbeard missile for the Army<\/a>. Blackbeard is a lower-cost design said to be capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds. The exact maximum range of this missile is unclear, but the Army has said in the past that it is targeting \u201c80% of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4 capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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