The U.S. Army's realization its huge MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATacMS) that blasted Iraqi Army positions in the Iraq War of 2003 might become an effective anti-ship missile (ASM) opens the possibility of the missile also being deployed to sink enemy warships.

And given a few tweaks, this long-range tactical ballistic missile will confer on the U.S. the capability to organize its own anti-access/anti denial (A2/AD) zones along its coast, or along the coasts of allied nations such as the Philippines and the Baltic States.

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ATacMS will be upgraded to attack moving targets on land and at sea, said Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

The U.S. Navy has been playing catch-up to both China and Russia in the realm of long-range ASM, the development of which has languished as the US military focused its resources on fighting insurgencies for over a decade. Weapons needed to prevail against Russia and China in a modern conventional war were left undeveloped.

Using ATacMS as an ASM will eliminate the massive cost and long wait times often associated with developing a new weapons system. The ATacMS ASM can be available as soon as the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), which recommended this weapon's use as a warship killer, integrates the guidance system technology to allow this missile top hit moving targets.

The latest version of ATacMS -- MGM-168 ATacMS-Block IVA -- can send its 230 kg unitary warhead to destroy a target up to 300 km distant flying at a speed of Mach 3 (3,700 km/h). This version will be converted into an ASM.

Analysts said SCO will have to integrate an existing seeker capable of detecting and tracking moving targets onto the front of the ATacMS. The seeker is effective against warships and mobile land targets such as tanks.

With this capability, what before was an Army surface-to-surface missile system will soon prevent enemy warships such as those from the Russian Navy from venturing inside the ATacMS kill zone.

 "My goal is to develop and demonstrate an ATacMS that's capable of hitting moving targets at land and sea," said SCO Director Will Roper. "We're bringing in seeker technology that's being developed in the Department (of Defense)."

"We're very likely to succeed on this, because we've got the technologies on hand," he noted. 

TagsMGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, ATacMS, U.S. Army, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Strategic Capabilities Office, Will Roper