Northrop Grumman enhances ICBM Target Vehicle with digital redesign

Reuters Events SMR and Advanced Reactor 2025

Northrop Grumman enhances ICBM Target Vehicle with digital redesign
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 01, 2024

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is undertaking a significant redesign of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) target vehicle for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The upgraded design replaces the legacy Trident C4 first stage solid rocket motor with the Peacekeeper SR119 motor, enhancing the vehicle's range, lift capability, and payload capacity for ICBM target missions.

The company is utilizing virtual and augmented reality technologies to fully animate and validate the integration and stacking processes of the new target vehicle. These operations will be demonstrated later this year.

Northrop Grumman has adapted the retired SR119 rocket motor to function as the first stage motor, achieving the required mission performance with minimal modifications to its original design. The new ICBM target design is expected to support missile defense testing well into the future.

Earlier this month, Northrop Grumman completed the Critical Design Review of the redesigned ICBM target vehicle. The first flight of the new vehicle is scheduled for late 2025, and it will feature advanced front ends capable of simulating complex, long-range ballistic missile threats.

Robin Heard, director of targets at Northrop Grumman, stated, "Our approach to building target vehicles enables us to pair new and proven technologies together to create the best solution to meet customer needs. It's about finding the right balance of affordability and innovation - combining capable, government-owned surplus motors and sophisticated front ends to simulate current and emerging threats."

ICBM target vehicles, which mimic ballistic missile threats, are used by the MDA to test the effectiveness of the nation's missile defense systems, including the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Northrop Grumman, as the prime contractor, has delivered 25 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile and ICBM target vehicles and supported 10 successful launches since 2011.

The redesigned ICBM target vehicle marks Northrop Grumman's first program to employ virtual and augmented reality for fully animating the vehicle's factory integration and field operations, a process known as pathfinding. This approach allows the company to vet new integration, stacking, and test procedures on inert hardware in a low-risk environment. Virtual simulations of pathfinding operations further reduce risk, enhance end-to-end testing capabilities, and optimize processes to deliver this critical capability with agility.

In partnership with the MDA and the U.S. Air Force Rocket Systems Launch Program, Northrop Grumman successfully completed a static fire test of the SR119 solid rocket motor in 2022, followed by initial integration pathfinding operations in June 2024. These tests confirmed the motor's suitability as a first stage in the new target vehicle application.

Northrop Grumman remains a leading provider of threat-representative target vehicles for testing and verifying the nation's missile defense systems. With a robust portfolio of advanced avionics components and adaptable kits, the company repurposes decommissioned motors to rapidly configure customer-specified adversarial threats, thereby reducing costs.