Northrop Grumman has begun manufacturing a critical component of its Next Generation Interceptor, weaving composite threads to create a newly designed rocket throat nozzle to demonstrate the efficacy of its proposal in a competition against Lockheed Martin to build a new intercontinental ballistic missile killer.
Northrop, teamed with Raytheon Technologies for the NGI competition, is building the component -- which plays a key role during liftoff -- at its manufacturing facility in Magna, Utah.
Lisa Brown, Northrop Grumman vice president and program director for the company’s NGI effort, said the throat nozzle “is one of the long poles in the tent for the program and we wanted to continue to demonstrate to MDA and DOD and others how well the hardware is coming along,” referring to the Missile Defense Agency and Defense Department.
A nozzle throat allows for the propellant to expel gases in a specified direction which optimizes thrust and control of the rocket motor, according to Brown.
“The throat nozzle controls the pressure in the motor and allows the combustion species to exit in a controlled way that leads to the motor producing directed thrust,” she added. “So, along with the rest of the nozzle, it controls the amount of push, and the direction of that push, that a rocket motor can provide.”
The cone-shaped device is a new design that is intended to be mated with a similarly new designed NGI booster to maximize an efficient launch from existing Ground-based Midcourse Defense system silos in California and Alaska.
“Completing that hardware -- that will maximize what is possible by the booster within existing silos -- is a big deal,” Brown said. “That compositely wound structure takes so long to wind and cure. That's the reason that we need to start on it well ahead of time.”
In addition, Northop is testing and making “large batches” of rocket motors to do burn-rate calculations.
“Essentially, every single component of NGI has to be tested to ensure that it will withstand natural and hostile radiation environments,” Brown said. “So essentially, we're going to assess all components of our solution before we enter [preliminary design review],” she said.
There are “thousands” of parts to the system, she said.
In March 2021, MDA selected Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team for initial NGI design contracts, setting up a two-way race to build a new guided missile intended to protect the United States before the end of the decade from advanced North Korean ICBMs. The total combined contract value for the two awards was $7.5 billion, DOD said at the time.
In April, MDA outlined a $10 billion plan to prototype two competing designs for a Next Generation Interceptor, select a winner in 2025 and field by 2027 the new hit-to-kill weapon system top brass say is needed to defeat North Korea's improving inventory of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
MDA’s budget plan sets FY-25 for a down-select and two years for the winning company to complete development and emplacement of the first NGI. The spending plan “provides NGI development including two vendors through Critical Design Review to deliver the NGI in accordance with the two awarded contracts to support first operational delivery in late FY-27,” states MDA’s budget request.
In December, the Northrop-Raytheon NGI design passed muster with MDA during a System Requirements Review.
Next up are preliminary design and critical design reviews; target dates for both milestones are competition sensitive, Brown said.