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Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by mdaniel on Saturday February 26, 2022 @01:27PM (#30480241)
I was curious what "MLRS" was, and it turns out there's a product page for it, only missing its "Add to Cart" button: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/m270.html
Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by dylan604 on Saturday February 26, 2022 @02:30PM (#30480958)
No, this is one of those where the button says "Contact Us for a free quote".

These things don't have a set price. They have a price of "How much can you afford?"

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by mdaniel on Saturday February 26, 2022 @02:39PM (#30481047)
> They have a price of "How much can you afford?"

That's actually a "normal" question when thinking of it in terms of one saas company to another, but I actually think that question is almost nonsensical when thinking of it as a company selling to a major government. "Err, what is this 'afford' word you use? I do not think it means what you think it does."

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by dylan604 on Saturday February 26, 2022 @02:59PM (#30481242)
let me rephrase then...

"How much can we charge to ensure we are not leaving money on the table?"

'How much can you afford' has a deeper meaning. It's not how much money is in your wallet definition of "afford". It's more like how high can we push that number before your backside no longer clinches. It's a sales person's wet dream situation. It was never meant to be understood as "we can't afford your asking price, so give us a lower rate'.

The overall missed point is that there is no set price. The prices are negotiated per purchaser.

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by hluska on Saturday February 26, 2022 @01:57PM (#30480594)
Holy cow, good find. Thanks for posting this - this is darned interesting.
Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by mgdlbp on Saturday February 26, 2022 @02:55PM (#30481203)
Huh, didn't know it was trademarked!
Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by _djo_ on Saturday February 26, 2022 @04:49PM (#30482306)
It’s not, it’s a generic term.

This is the M270 system which was developed in the 1970s and 1980s to meet the US Army’s Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) requirement. It was just a way of naming the requirement, kind of like “JSF”, and it stuck.

At the time rocket launchers were most commonly referred to as Multiple Rocket Launchers (MRL) and were mostly simple truck-based variants.

However MLRS had been used to refer to the capability by others in the past and it was never trademarked or limited to the US requirement and the M270. Over time it became common to refer to any modern integrated multiple rocket launcher as an MLRS, leaving the MRL naming only for less sophisticated types.

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by mgdlbp on Monday February 28, 2022 @03:11AM (#30497549)
I thought so as well!

'MLRS is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin Corporation.'

https://trademarks.justia.com/759/79/mlrs-75979459.html

But for some reason as trademark class 28, toys and sporting goods, with the statement 'toys, namely scale models of military vehicles'.

After some searching: apparently, they mean this:

https://www.brickmania.com/mlrs-multiple-launch-rocket-syste...

Trademarks only apply to their registered class—did they seriously trademark the term just to limit who could sell toys named with it?

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by _djo_ on Monday February 28, 2022 @09:07AM (#30499916)
Huh, well I stand corrected.

That is quite a bizarre trademark and I didn't expect it.

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by mgdlbp on Monday February 28, 2022 @05:31PM (#30506074)
Ah, they do also have trademarks for the military use and for the full phrase, just realized I stopped searching when I found the first one.

https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=mlrs

https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=multiple+launch+rocke...

Re:Residential building struck by a missile in southwestern ... by _djo_ on Tuesday March 01, 2022 @08:52AM (#30514083)
Thanks for this, again I stand corrected.

I'm amazed that they were granted those trademarks. As I said, MLRS has become a very generic term and from the start it was a US Army name, not invented by Lockheed-Martin.