French Army LRU Unitary Launch Rocket Vehicle for the first time at military parade 14 July 2015 11007152

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Military Industry Technology - LRU 227mm Unitary Launch Rocket
 
French Army LRU Unitary Launch Rocket Vehicle for the first time at military parade 14 July 2015.
For the Military Parade of French Army for the Bastille Day, July 14, 2015, the LRU (Lance Roquette Unitaire - Unitary Launch Rocket), an upgraded version of the LRM (American-made M270 MLRS Multiple Launch Rocket System) will be shown for the first time to the public.
     
For the Military Parade of French Army for the Bastille Day, July 14, 2015, the LRU (Lance Roquette Unitaire - Unitary Launch Rocket), an upgraded version of the LRM (American-made M270 MLRS Multiple Launch Rocket System) will be shown for the first time to the public. LRU (Lance Roquette Unitaire - Unitary Launch Rocket) is based on U.S. made M270 MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System)
     

In September 2011, a contract for the LRU upgrade was awarded by the French Army Procurement Agency with a Franco-German consortium including Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, alongside Airbus Defence and Space, Sagem, and Thales to modernize the LRM (M270) MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) with new firing system and rockets.

The first upgraded LRU was delivered to the French army in February 2014 to the 6th Artillery Regiment, based at Gresswiller for testing, which are now delivered to the 1st Artillery Regiment to be operational.

France is upgrading its M270s to fire the 227 mm M31 high explosive (HE) unitary warhead Guided MLRS (GMLRS). This change was required following France's ratification of the Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008, which banned France's existing munitions for the M270. The upgraded system will be known as the Lance-roquette unitaire (LRU) in the French army.

In the past, French army had a fleet of 55 M270s, only 13 units are receiving the upgrade to the LRU configuration, with the rest having been withdrawn from service.

The LRU uses the new rocket M31 also called GUMLRS (Guided Unitary MLRS). In France, the M31 rocket is manufactured by the U.S. company Lockheed Martin with an engine supplied by the French Company Roxel.

Compared with the earlier French MLRS rockets, which were armed with submunitions, the M31 features a single 90 kg HE warhead; includes GPS and inertial navigation system guidance to provide a circular error of probability of less than 10 m; and doubles the missile's range to 70 km