A U.S. Air Force official said that he welcomes the promise of reduced munition costs and increased performance that could result from greater competition in the solid rocket motor (SRM) industry, as industry SRM heavyweights Northrop Grumman [NOC] and L3Harris Technologies [LHX] try to qualify as second source SRM suppliers of some of their counterpart’s munitions and as new firms enter the SRM market.
New SRM entrants include New Mexico-based startup X-Bow Systems, Texas-based startup Firehawk Aerospace, Colorado’s Ursa Major Technologies, and Anduril‘s Indiana-based Adranos. Lockheed Martin [LMT] has invested in X-Bow since 2022 (Defense Daily, Nov. 17, 2023).
In addition, another major defense prime contractor, RTX [RTX], has invested in Firehawk Aerospace (Defense Daily, Jan. 10).
“The market is responding to what you’re starting to see with global events,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, the service’s program executive officer (PEO) for weapons at Eglin AFB, Fla., said during a telephone interview last week. “You’ve got thoughtful companies that are looking at solid rocket motors and seeing opportunities, and from my perspective as PEO/Weapons, that’s good. You’re seeing an expansion of the ecosystem, the facilitization, and the workforce, and all of that translates to competition. From a taxpayer and an Air Force perspective, we believe that when we have competition, it yields innovation and is good for the things we need to build to be competitive.”
“We’re finding ourselves in a situation that could be really helpful, as we posture for potentially very competitive days from a national security perspective,” he said.
DoD munitions stockpiles have been a discussion area, as the U.S. continues to supply Ukraine with weapons to defeat Russian aggression and as the U.S. seeks to build advanced missiles to counter China.
Bartolomei said that Northrop Grumman and L3Harris, through its acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne last year, supply the “preponderance” of the SRMs for the systems in his portfolio. Asked to assess current SRM production for munitions for fielded forces, he replied, “The demands that are being placed on the industrial base are challenging.”
“Workforce availability, making sure we have enough people that are trained in the marketplace, that are capable of doing that as those demands come, industry has a challenge to make sure that we have the right skills and the right people in the right places,” Bartolomei said. “I’m encouraged with L3Harris and the Aerojet acquisition…I’m sure that they have strong plans on how they’re going to execute that.”
3D printing, additive manufacturing, composite materials, the use of artificial intelligence for data analysis in the SRM manufacturing process look to change the defense industrial manufacturing model of 30 years ago.
“When you additively manufacture a solid rocket motor, you have a lot more flexibility on how the [propellant] grains are laid down in the rocket,” Bartolomei said. “In the old days, you had to pour all of that, and you were really constrained by traditional industrial manufacturing techniques. But now that you have added manufacturing capabilities, it’s opening up interesting avenues in how you design your systems.”
L3Harris said that it wants to qualify as a second SRM source for some munitions, but the company declined to be specific.
“While we are keenly focused on delivering on our current commitments, we continue to innovate solid rocket motor (SRM) technology to enhance motor performance, increasing weapon range, speed and lethality,” the company said in response to emailed questions. “By incorporating lightweight graphite composite cases, advanced nozzles and high-energy propellant, as well as new proprietary enhancements, we’re developing motors to push missiles faster and farther, as needed for the missions of tomorrow.”
“Thanks to significant internal and government investments, we’re expanding and modernizing key production locations across the country, in support of the nation’s need to ramp up SRM production and replenish U.S. stockpiles,” L3Harris said. “We’re also pursuing innovative collaborations like with NIOA in Australia and the NSWC IHD to maximize production.”
Northrop Grumman said that it will test an SRM motor this year to qualify it as a second source to L3Harris’ SRM for the U.S. Army’s Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) by Lockheed Martin.