Rocket engine producer Ursa Main has signed a contract with the US Navy to design, 3D print and hot-fire take a look at a prototype stable rocket motor (SRM) for the Normal Missile (SM) program.
The contract will see Ursa Main leverage its additive manufacturing-powered Lynx know-how to design the following era of SRMs optimized for manufacturability and reliability.
Signed beneath the Naval Energetic Methods and Applied sciences (NEST) Program, this undertaking seeks to develop a brand new 3D printable design for the Mk 104 twin rocket motor, which powers the SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 missiles. Manufacturing legacy fashions of the Mk 104 is a difficult and time-consuming course of.
Throughout the US, excessive demand for SRMs is presently coupled with a scarcity of home suppliers, with a have to restock US inventories and assist Ukraine’s ongoing warfare efforts. Ursa Main is working to handle this demand with Lynx, by dashing up and scaling the manufacturing of the important thing SM rocket elements on American soil.
“We’re happy with the Navy’s assist and recognition of Ursa Main as a trusted companion to develop the following era of Mk 104 stable rocket motors,” commented Joe Laurienti, Founder and CEO of Ursa Main.
“Our new strategy to manufacturing SRMs permits Ursa Main to rapidly develop high-performing motors at scale, driving quantity and price efficiencies to handle this crucial nationwide want.”
Ursa Main to 3D print next-generation US Navy SRM
The contract will see Ursa Main design a 3D printing-optimized SRM to energy the Navy’s Normal Missile arsenal. This contains the SM-2 surface-to-air missile, the SM-3 which is used for ballistic missile protection, and the SM-6, an anti-air, land, and sea missile. Based on the US Missile Protection Company, the SM-6 is the one missile able to intercepting maneuverable hypersonic missiles.
To attain this, Ursa Main will leverage its proprietary Lynx know-how, which is optimized for the design and manufacturing of SRMs. Unveiled in December 2023, Lynx manufacturing items mix additive manufacturing with product-agnostic tooling to rapidly and concurrently produce a number of SRMs. The Lynx might be tailored to provide totally different casing sizes starting from diameters of two inches to 22.5 inches, which incorporates most missiles equivalent to stingers, GMLRs and different air protection techniques.
Based on Laurienti, this know-how addresses demand within the protection sector for a sooner, cheaper, scalable, and extra versatile manufacturing course of for high-performance SRMs. He believes that the brand new 3D printed SRM might be within the manufacturing part in beneath three years, with a lot of that point being taken up by the qualification course of.
“The result’s an adaptable manufacturing course of that’s designed to mass produce a number of techniques, quickly switching from one mannequin to a different, producing dependable SRMs rapidly and at scale, whereas leaving room to collaborate throughout the business on energetics,” added Laurienti.
Ursa Main will ship the undertaking in collaboration with the US Navy’s Program Govt Workplace Built-in Warfare Methods (PEO IWS) 3.0 on the Naval Air Warfare Heart – Weapons Division at China Lake, and the India Head-based Naval Floor Warfare Heart.
“PEO IWS is worked up to work with Ursa Main on this effort to bolster a crucial part of the Nation’s industrial base,” said PEO IWS 3.0’s director, Captain Thomas Seigenthaler. “The manufacturing of stable rocket motors is a high precedence, and we’re impressed with Ursa Main’s revolutionary strategy to handle manufacturing challenges.”
AM bolsters US protection capabilities
This isn’t the primary time the United States Division of Protection (DoD) has turned to additive manufacturing to modernize the manufacturing of its missile know-how. Beforehand, a 3D printed scramjet engine from propulsion system producer Aerojet Rocketdyne was efficiently flight-tested in a US hypersonic missile analysis undertaking.
Developed in collaboration with the Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company (DARPA), Air Power Analysis Laboratory (AFRL) and Lockheed Martin, the engine is designed to propel an air-launched missile system that may attain speeds exceeding Mach 5. Based on Aerojet Rocketdyne, 3D printing the drive system has allowed it to be constructed utilizing 95% fewer components than earlier iterations.
Extra lately, Lockheed Martin, metallic 3D printer producer Velo3D and aerospace half inspection firm Vibrant collaborated with the US DoD’s LIFT Institute. The undertaking has seen the companions assess the validity of 3D printing hypersonic ramjet engines, and decide which processes are finest for missiles able to hypersonic flight.
Manufactured utilizing Velo3D’s laser powder mattress fusion (LPBF) know-how, the engines have been subjected to Vibrant’s acoustics-based Course of-Compensated Resonance Testing (PCRT). This course of analyzed key bodily properties, together with stress state, half integrity, geometry, and floor end.
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Featured picture exhibits a US Navy SM-6 missile. Photograph through the US Navy.