U.S. Marines Airlift HIMARS Rocket Artillery Into the Middle East Under New Rapid Deployment Concept

The U.S. Marine Corps conducted High Mobility Artillery Rocket System Rapid Insertion (HIRAIN) exercise in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, which covers the Middle East region, demonstrating its growing ability to bolster its firepower in the region using tactical airlift assets. The exercise, conducted on July 3, saw Marines deliver an M142 HIMARS launcher aboard a KC-130J Super Hercules transport, rapidly unload the system at an austere location, execute a simulated fire mission, and then withdraw before an adversary could respond. The drill highlighted the Marine Corps' continued emphasis on expeditionary precision strike operations and distributed warfare.

The HIRAIN concept allows HIMARS launchers to be transported by C-130s, which are the largest transports in production the United States, with the aircraft landing on short or improvised runways. HIMARS rapidly conduct strikes, and are then quickly extracted before hostile forces can locate and engage them. The exercise notably took place just days before Iranian strikes were reported to have destroyed multiple U.S. HIMARS launchers in the Gulf region. The HIRAIN concept has significant advantages over fixed missile batteries or large artillery formations, and enables commanders to establish temporary precision-strike positions almost anywhere within range of tactical transport aircraft. 

The importance of HIMARS has increased dramatically following the Marine Corps' force restructuring over the past several years, with Force Design reforms seeing the Corps eliminated its tank force while placing far greater emphasis on long-range precision fires capable of denying adversaries freedom of manoeuvre across maritime regions. Similar HIRAIN drills have been conducted in the Pacific theatre, including during Cobra Gold in Thailand and in Australia, reflecting the Cor’s determination to standardise rapid HIMARS deployment across geographically diverse operational environments. The central role which precision guided rocket artillery systems have played in the Russian-Ukrainian War have reinforced perceptions of their importance. 

When operated in the Ukrainian theatre HIMARS have been achieved successes against multiple high value targets, including the the destruction of launchers and radars from S-400 air defence systems, the destruction of other radar systems, the neutralisation of Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers. In mid-June Lockheed Martin unveiled a new HIMARS variant, the HIMARS FLEX, which was designed to address several of the original system’s operational shortcomings, providing double the weapons carriage and enhanced survivability. The U.S. Marine has also brought a new type of ballistic missile into service to quip the system, the PrSM, which combines a significantly extended range with a much more compact size to allow for carriage of two per launcher.