BAE Systems expands SRM production capability for tactical missiles

A UH-1 helicopter fires a 2.75 inch Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rocket. (BAE Systems)

BAE Systems is expanding its solid rocket motor (SRM) propellant production capabilities at Radford Army Ammunition Plant in southwestern Virginia, which operates under a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) framework.

The plant uses the extrusion method, which was the dominant technology before the development of cast-and-cure systems after the Second World War, Joe Bellotte, research and development manager for BAE Systems Ordnance Systems, told Janes on 13 October at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) exhibition in Washington, DC.

Cast-and-cure technology employs binders such as rubber, which can hold more solids than BAE Systems' extruded double-base propellant, he said, adding that cast SRMs “don't have diametric limitations; they've got more energy”, leaving extruded propellant for small, low-cost, high-volume applications such as 2.75 inch (70 mm) rockets.

“What my team's been doing for the last decade or so has been trying to close those perceived gaps between the cast-cure world and what we do, because inherently our technology is cheaper, inherently our technology is higher volume, so we can make stuff faster and make it more affordable,” Bellotte said.

“Those major gaps were diameter and energy. Diameter, up until 15 years ago, the biggest stuff we were making at Radford was the 2.75 [inch]. We've gone all the way up to 8.5 inch in diameter now,” he said.

“As far as energy is concerned, we've started incorporating solids into our formulations, which is like [what] the cast guys do, using some of the nitroamines that we manufacture at Holston [Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee], which is also part of our business unit, to make higher energy density stuff,” Bellotte said.