Raytheon wins $693 million production contract

Previously announced by the U.S. Department of Defense, the contract calls for Raytheon to build and deliver an undisclosed quantity of Patriot fire units and GEM-T interceptor missiles.

In words of Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business, "Sweden's Patriot procurement will provide joint training opportunities for the Swedish and U.S. armed forces, and enhance military interoperability. Patriot is continually modernized, providing Sweden the world's most advanced and capable air and missile defense system."

Raytheon’s Patriot Solutions is a missile defense system consisting of radars, command-and-control technology and multiple types of interceptors, all working together to detect, identify and defeat tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, advanced aircraft and other threats.

Additive Manufacturing to modernize the US Military

“Innovation” and “force modernization” are the Pentagon buzzwords of the day: Strategies are being developed across the Department of Defense enterprise, with these concepts as the foundational pillars. But oddly enough considering the defense budget of the United States compared to the defense budget of Russia or China, for the first time in decades the United States military apparatus does not possess a clear advantage on the world stage.

¿Causes? The flattening of the technological landscape and emergence of strongly modernized adversaries like Russia and China. Both causes requires that the U.S. innovate to remain dominant not only in technological progress but also in the ability to field systems more rapidly than their peer adversaries.

¿Solutions? Of course, there are not magical solutions, but the undersecretary for research and engineering, Michael Griffin, and other DoD leaders, believe that, in many ways, the Additive Manufacturing could boost the solution. They emphasize this approach in the fiscal 2019 budget request: $90 billion in R&D with increases concentrated in rapid prototyping for testing activities.

For the Pentagon, the Additive Manufacturing can serve as a foundational tool to accelerate new weapons development and provide innovative solutions to win the wars of the XXI Century. Bearing this in mind, industry partners, military operators, and members of the science and technology communities should certainly take notice: DoD leaders are increasingly placing their bets on Additive Manufacturing and they are thinking on using it not only for rapid prototyping in the early stages of development, but also for manufacturing of end-use parts.

Northrop Grumman: Additive Manufacturing for its new LEO Warhead for Hypersonic Missiles

In late March this year at the EMPI Test Facility in Burnet, Texas, Northrop Grumman, using Internal Research and Development (IRAD) funding, demonstrated its new LEO warhead for the first time to customers competing for the DoD hypersonic weapons contracts. This new warhead development marked the first time that the company had made some of its specific warhead components -including the fragmenting inner body- using Additive Manufacturing (AM).

This 50 lb-class warhead has been designed to equip future US air-to-surface and surface-to-surface hypersonic weapons to defeat a broader range of target sets, from ground forces to light/medium vehicles and aircraft.  The new warhead leverages the company's Lethality Enhanced Ordnance (LEO) technology: a scalable fragmentation/penetration warhead solution developed by Northrop Grumman in response to a US Department of Defense (DoD) requirement that by 2019 cluster munitions containing submunitions do not result in more than 1% Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) after arming. Unlike submunitions, LEO technology uses a thinned out shell casing supplemented with an inner fragmentation layer that can be scaled according to the required target set. Northrop Grumman said that in a series of warhead tests with LEO technology achieved the army's stated requirements for area effectiveness, and left behind no UXO.

Minuteman III rocket motor aging surveillance test completed at AEDC

Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) personnel completed testing of a Minuteman III Stage II motor in the Complex's J-6 Large Rocket Test Facility for aging surveillance of the 48-year-old defense program. 

"Motors such as this Stage II, are pulled from the field and sent to us to test," said Brandon Dorman, a J-6 test engineer. "The motor's age and storage conditions are tracked and documented for the test. It is fired at the J-6 facility and various performance parameters are collected and analyzed to determine the motor's overall performance. This information is then compared to build specifications, as well as previous firings, to assist in early detection of trends that could threaten the readiness of our nation's ICBM  fleet."

Since these motors are located in different operational locations for varying lengths of time, aging surveillance testing may uncover critical information that is valuable to the Department of Defense. "The Stage II motor is part of the Minuteman III Aging and Surveillance test program to obtain motor performance data that is used to identify and quantify age-related degradation," said Richard Kirkpatrick, an AEDC test manager and engineer in the Space and Missile Test Branch. "In addition, the motor is inspected post-test for any emerging critical failure modes."

Budget constraints make missile defense decissions challenging

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) indicated that given the budget challenges facing Congress, difficult decisions must be made regarding the resources required to continue missile defense development for the United States. “Our challenge is to make sure we’re doing what we need to do to protect ourselves against missile attacks and to take advantage of emerging technologies that can be utilized as soon as reasonably possible given the constraints to the budget,” Cochran said. Cochran sought information from MDA director, Vice Admiral James Syring on the whether the budget request is sufficient to continue development and deployment of missile defense programs, including enhanced radar capabilities and the potential for a sea-based option to defend the eastern United States. The subcommittee also examined the administration’s decision to increase the number of operational ground based interceptors from 30 to 44 to enhance the nation’s national missile defense posture. The Department of Defense in April announced a new missile defense strategy in light of continued efforts by North Korea to test its nuclear capabilities and long-range launch vehicles. The MDA mission also takes into account the ability of Iran to launch satellites into space, which indicates it has the capability to develop a long range ballistic missile.

FACT SHEET: Nuclear Weapons Employment Strategy of the United States

 

Following the release of the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and ratification of the New START Treaty, the President directed the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State, Department of Energy, and the intelligence community, to conduct a detailed analysis of U.S. nuclear deterrence requirements and policy in order to ensure U.S. nuclear posture and plans are aligned to address today’s security environment. This review was based on the principle that a robust assessment of today’s security environment and resulting Presidential guidance must drive nuclear employment planning, force structure, and posture decisions. (Read more)

Israel Gets An Unwanted Gift From America

 

Recently the United States agreed to build a base for the new Israeli Arrow 3 anti-missile missile. This has caused a major security problem for Israel. That’s because the United States publishes, for all to see, precise specifications of military construction programs that are not classified, so that contractors can come up with realistic and accurate bids for the job. In the United States something like the Arrow 3 base would not be classified. But in Israel details of military bases are very much secrets. So there was consternation in Israel when they saw all the details of their new Arrow 3 base (including specs on the six missile silos and support facilities) on the Internet, where the U.S. Department of Defense publicizes jobs to be bid on. After all the yelling and recriminations were over it was agreed that there was a failure to communicate on both sides. (Read more)