US Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center test fires Sentinel stage-one solid rocket motor

News, US March 9, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center conducted the first full-scale static test fire of the LGM-35A Sentinel stage-one solid rocket motor at the Northrop Grumman test facility in Promontory, Utah.

The latest test proved Sentinel’s capabilities and enabled the team to move forward to the next stage of testing. During the test, the stage-one solid rocket motor was fired for the anticipated duration and met performance parameters and objectives within the expected ranges.

Vice president of the Sentinel program at Northrop Grumman, Sarah Willoughby said, “This static fire highlights the advances we’ve made in digital engineering and gives us confidence in our ability to translate that into hardware build and test as we continue to make progress on the path to flight testing”.

Willoughby further added that “The results allow us to validate and anchor our stage-one motor performance before entering qualification testing and completing system analyses, key to lowering risk as we mature the Sentinel design and advance towards critical design review.”

American defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman said in a statement that, the Sentinel missile features a three-stage booster. The company is producing stages one and two of the missile and the booster is a new design, “using the latest materials and design technologies to ultimately improve performance, reliability, safety, and sustainability”.

*^{The Sentinel stage-one solid rocket motor casting is a complex process of pouring rocket motor propellant into motor cases. (Image Credit: Northrop Grumman)}*

According to Sarah Willoughby, the investments in “digital design, test, and advanced manufacturing” helped the company to ensure that the development of next-generation missiles is “more affordably and with innovation at its core, delivering to the Air Force a safe, secure, reliable and flexible capability”.

The U.S. Air Force plans to replace its fielded Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, which has been in service for more than half a century, with the next-generation Sentinel system. The U.S. Sentinel acquisition program aims to modernize the land-based nuclear triad of the United States.