The modified second-stage ATK Orion 32-4 booster motor was fired Aug. 3 for 40 seconds at maximum thrust at an ATK test facility in Promontory, Utah. The Orion 32-4 motor used high-performance solid rocket fuel.

In a similar test last month, the team successfully test fired a modified ATK Orion 32-7, the first stage for the prototype two-stage propulsion system. Both tests demonstrated the integrated operation of the motor with an electro-mechanical thrust vector control system that steers the motor's nozzle by responding to flight control and steering commands issued by an avionics system. Moog Inc. developed the thrust vector control system, which was integrated by ATK; Lockheed Martin developed the avionics system.

"Our team implemented an excellent manufacturing and test demonstration ahead of schedule and on budget," said Michele Smith, program manager, SLIRBM Booster System Demonstration, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "Our team now has demonstrated propulsion technologies that are key to further developing this potential new capability for the Navy. Next, we will complete a missile system trade study."

"Our unmatched expertise in solid rocket propulsion allowed ATK to design, develop and test the first-stage and second-stage motors in only 13 months," said Charlie Precourt, vice president, Advanced Strategic Programs, ATK Launch Systems Group. "Development and test of a missile booster set of this size and complexity in this time frame is unprecedented. Our team needed only a small fraction of the development time usually required in a traditional development program. This performance sets the new industry standard."

In the SLIRBM Booster System Demonstration, Lockheed Martin and ATK are demonstrating cost-effective, reliable and producible solid-propellant rocket motor technologies for a proposed conventional missile. The demonstration is the first phase in a low-risk development path for a proposed new missile that would travel at supersonic speed to reach intermediate-range targets within 15 minutes.

The proposed missile would be deployed on the U.S. Navy's Ohio-class SSGN guided-missile submarines. An SSGN-based SLIRBM would offer the war fighter an extremely accurate, no-notice prompt global strike capability from an undetectable, highly mobile platform that is on station 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs Organization awarded the 16-month, $9.2 million contract in 2005. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor, systems integrator and missile system trade study lead, performs program management and engineering at its Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. ATK, Lockheed Martin's partner and subcontractor, is developing the rocket motor technology, including the booster motor and nozzle.

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