Northrop Grumman fires new solid rocket motor, launches innovation campaign
The company has no doubt been looking somewhat nervously into the rear view mirror as new competitors race into the skyrocketing Pentagon market.
The company has no doubt been looking somewhat nervously into the rear view mirror as new competitors race into the skyrocketing Pentagon market.
DoD officials and outside experts have been wringing their hands for the past year over the state of the US supply chain for solid rocket motor technology, as stocks of munitions and missile systems reliant on SRMs — such as the Army's Javelin shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapon, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), and Stinger missiles — have been depleted by sales to Kiev.
The new partnership aims to stand up a “multi-user rocket motor facility” in Australia that can meet needs for munitions and space launch.
“The only way that we're going to get to the scale of a prime that can change the way a lot of things are done is to work across the same domains that a prime has to do," Palmer Luckey told Breaking Defense. “You have to fight and win across multiple areas.”