Modernised Techniques and Common Software Enable Accelerated Schedules

Conscious of the dynamic that industry must quickly deploy new capabilities in support of maintaining strategic advantage, Northrop Grumman’s Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) programme leverages advancing manufacturing techniques and a digital collaboration environment to design, produce and test with speed and agility.

“Production and manufacturing play a central role in our program to ensure we are meeting the timelines required to outpace threats and keep our country safe,” said Lisa Brown, Northrop Grumman VP for the NGI programme. Using existing operational facilities, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies have already made enormous strides in building and testing relevant hardware for the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) programme. “We built and tested key components of the Next Generation Interceptor ahead of customer timelines […] Early testing of hardware helps reduce risk for the NGI mission,” Brown added.

Huntsville, commonly known as Rocket City, today serves as headquarters for the Northrop Grumman-led NGI team, which has recently moved to a new, expanded campus, located just outside Gate 9 of Redstone Arsenal. “Co-located Northrop Grumman and Raytheon employees working on NGI in Huntsville help enhance collaboration and operational efficiencies while creating easy access and a transparent environment for customers,” said Brown.

Northrop Grumman’s Launch Vehicle business in Chandler, AZ, has a 60-year development history and produces an average of two new launch vehicle configurations each year. Most launch vehicles built in Chandler are intended for the MDA. The facility uses lean manufacturing and digital engineering, enabling the flexibility to adjust manufacturing needs based on demand.

Northrop Grumman’s large Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs) play a central role in the NGI programme, and the company owns one of the only SRM test areas in the US. The large SRMs are built in Utah, with motors built in Bacchus and Promontory, and cases produced in Clearfield. These facilities include unique, market-leading technologies, such as the company’s automated casting facility that uses three 1,800-gallon SRM mixers, the largest of their kind in the United States. Its infrastructure supports medium to large ground tests of Northrop Grumman and customer motors, as well as  lifecycle testing.

Along with mixing, casting and assembling the motors, Northrop Grumman also manufactures an array of rocket motor nozzles used in both solid and liquid launch, while carbon-fiber technologies are used to manufacture the SRM cases at its Clearfield facilities. The company continues to make significant investments in facilities and manufacturing technology to enhance product delivery and meet the needs and requirements of new launch vehicles, enhanced payloads and national defense objectives on its flight-proven foundation.

Raytheon Technologies’ space factory also plays a critical role in the NGI programme. Its roots date to the late 1990s, when the US government tasked what is now Raytheon Missiles & Defense with building a system to counter the rising threat of long-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Based in Tucson, AZ, the space factory covers 47,000sqft and houses over 60 clean rooms in a spacelike environment. Each one is designed specifically for manufacturing or testing interceptor technologies for successful deployment beyond the atmosphere, as a critical component of US missile defence capabilities. The factory has contributed to 49 successful tests of Raytheon Missiles & Defense capabilities in space, and since the facility expanded in 2015, the company has invested $40 million in further modernising manufacturing, and is stepping up digital technologies that enable faster, more efficient work in design and testing.

The common software factory solution adopted by both companies, and its associated digital infrastructure, will play a central role in delivering the NGI. It brings the team together with the MDA into a single, agile, secure and efficient development environment, providing the MDA with an ability to review and collaborate on code development and release. The common software factory is equipped with a set of tools, process workflows, scripts and environments configured to produce software deployable artifacts with minimal human intervention. It also enables transparent collaboration during NGI software development, and greatly reduces risk to the programme schedule.