The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is no longer reserved for bombarding the bejesus out of ISIS militants in Syria from the cover of the war-torn country’s rolling deserts: Marine Corps officials are experimenting with firing the guided artillery system from the deck of an amphibious ship in the middle of the ocean.
Operating aboard the USS Anchorage off the coast of southern California as part of Exercise Dawn Blitz on Oct. 22, a detachment of Marines with 5th Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton set up a HIMARs system on the amphibious transport dock, chaining the vehicle-mounted system to the vessel’s flight deck before firing off a 227mm GPS-guided M31 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GLMRS) rocket at a mock target floating in the waters near a Pacific island some 70 kilometers away.
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