Army, Lockheed prep for first extended-range guided rocket test firing

WASHINGTON — The Army and Lockheed Martin are preparing for the first test firing of the extended-range version of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), which will double the rocket’s reach.

The goal is get the current GMLRS rocket out to 150-plus kilometers, Gaylia Campbell, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of precisions fires and combat maneuver systems, told Defense News in an interview leading up to the Association of the U.S. Army’s virtual conference.

The flight test is expected in mid-November at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and will be the first of several engineering and manufacturing development-phase tests ahead of a production decision.

“GMLRS is kind of the backbone of the field artillery” and it’s a cost effective way for the Army and its allies with the system to have more flexibility when it comes to reach, Campbell said. “If you think about certain regions of the world, like Poland and Romania, and the reach that a 75-kilometer distance away system gives them today and being able to take that to 150 kilometers gives them a lot more flexibility in how they operate and where they position their forces,” she said.

The design to extend the range of GMLRS includes a modernized pod expected to improve reload operations, which will still contain six rounds per pod, Campbell said. The pod will be able to accommodate both legacy and extended-range rockets.

https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2020/10/13/army-lockheed-prep-for-first-extended-range-guided-rocket-test-firing/

U.N. to vote on adding Russia, China, Saudi Arabia to Human Rights Council

Oct. 13 (UPI) – The United Nations General Assembly is expected Tuesday to vote on adding China, Russia and Saudi Arabia to its Human Rights Council, a matter that's drawn significant opposition from critics who say those nations are some of the worst violators.

The global body must fill 15 openings on the 47-nation member Human Rights Council, each of which will begin serving three-year terms starting in 2021.

The council fills 15 seats in five regions Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America-Caribbean and Western Europe-another states for each three-year rotation period. Russia, China and Saudi Arabia are vying for four seats in their respective regions with Pakistan, Cuba, Nepal and Uzbekistan.

Russia hasn't been part of the Eastern European group since 2016, while China and Saudi Arabia were part of the Asia-Pacific group that served from 2017 through 2019.

The United States, which has wavered multiple times in the past on maintaining a seat on the HRC, withdrew in 2018 under President Donald Trump, accusing the council of being "hypocritical and self-serving."

Many in the human rights community have complained about China's treatment of the Muslim-minority population in its northwestern Xinjiang region, among other purported abuses.

Russia is under scrutiny over the recent poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the 2018 poisoning of a former spy and his adult daughter and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/10/13/UN-to-vote-on-adding-Russia-China-Saudi-Arabia-to-Human-Rights-Council/4041602586896/