The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently awarded defense solutions company Raytheon, in collaboration with Northrop Grumman, a phase two Burn n’ Go program contracts for the continued development of a new solid rocket motor design.
Raytheon is prime on the contract and has partnered with Northrop Grumman’s Allegany Ballistic Laboratory. The lab has solid rocket motor design and manufacturing expertise. Luna Innovations, an optical technology company, will contribute material development capabilities.
The collaborative approach builds on Raytheon’s Advanced Technology team’s broader composable weapons strategy that focuses on reducing cycle time, lowering costs and accelerating missile development.
“Solid rocket motor production has become a critical bottleneck for many missile programs,” Colin Whelan, Raytheon president of Advanced Technology, said. “By pursuing a composable approach to how these motors are designed and built, we’re helping lay the groundwork for faster, more adaptable munitions production across multiple mission sets.”
The new design will decouple post-manufactured motors from traditional, single-use designs. This enables a composable motor capable of meeting multiple mission needs by adjusting thrust on demand.
During the seven-month phase one, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman demonstrated the feasibility of the new propulsion approach.
Under phase two, Raytheon’s Advanced Technology team will further develop and scale the solution then test how it performs in increasingly realistic rocket motor configurations.