The HIMARS system has higher mobility (wheels instead of tracks), but twice less firepower. The M270 MLRS uses a tracked base and can carry more ammunition.
M270 MLRS carries 2 containers of 6 missiles, a total of 12 missiles. Or two ballistic missiles.
The M142 HIMARS mobile carries only 1 container with 6 missiles, or one ballistic missile. The rate of fire of the M270 is 12 missiles per minute, and HIMARS can fire 18 missiles during this time.
HIMARS
Length 7 meters, height – 3.2 meters, width – 2.4 meters. This installation weighs more than 16 tons. It is designed for three crew members. The maximum speed at which HIMARS travels is 85 km / h, and the range (at one gas station) is 480 km.
M270
This installation is 6.85 meters long, 2.6 meters high and about 3 meters wide. Weighs 25 tons. It is also designed for three crew members: installation commander, gunner and driver-mechanic. Maximum speed – 64 km / h, range – 480 km.
HIMARS M270 and M142 launchers are designed to attack enemy areas of concentration, artillery and other weapons, command posts and control systems, to attack trucks, military equipment, armored personnel carriers, to provide fire support to their units and more.
Because these systems can use different types of ammunition, the M270 and M142 can be used to:
defeats the enemy at close range;
point defeat of a more distant distance;
launch of ballistic missiles.
American installations, depending on the modification, can fire several types of projectiles:
227 mm unguided rockets capable of flying up to 45 km;
Guided MLRS M30 and M31 long-range missiles up to 70 km;
high-precision 610 mm long-range ballistic missiles of the AFOM / ATACMS class, which can cover from 140 to 300 km.
Also compatible with HIMARS and M270 is the latest high-precision missile of the new generation – Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 500 km.