Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) successfully cast the LGM-35A Sentinel program’s first inert stage-one and stage-two solid rocket motor set this summer. The casting event demonstrated the maturity of Sentinel’s solid rocket motor design and validated manufacturing processes, advanced tooling, and facilities.
The Sentinel program used digital engineering tools that helped iterate motor designs earlier and faster, prior to building hardware, thus allowing the team to produce the motors more efficiently and with less risk. The casting event is one of several on-time manufacturing firsts for the program over the past year as the program prepares for first flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
“This first inert ‘pathfinder’ motor tested our processes and allowed us to draw down risk, paving the way for the team to begin production of additional test motors,” said Sarah Willoughby, vice president and program manager, Sentinel, Northrop Grumman.
“We are now building stage-one and stage-two solid rocket motors that will undergo static test fire, and the data from these tests will be combined with information from ongoing structural and wind tunnel performance testing to fine tune our digitally engineered models, in line with the Air Force development schedule.”
Sentinel is leveraging digital engineering, agile software, and open systems architecture to model and authenticate virtual designs, lowering risk and reducing the time it takes to field the system and new technologies.
NOC shares skyrocketed $13.51, or 2.7%, to $507.50.
