US defence firm Northrop Grumman plans to boost rocket motor output

American defence company Northrop Grumman is preparing to significantly increase its production of rocket motors, aiming to produce 14,000 units annually.

This move comes as the Pentagon seeks to replenish the weaponry supplied to Ukraine and bolster its stockpiles for potential future conflicts, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

In the past four years, the defence company has been delivering between 5,000 and 6,000 solid rocket motors each year to power Lockheed Martin’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System. However, increasing demand over the past two years has prompted Northrop to raise its output target to 10,000, with a potential further increase to 14,000 units per year.

Gordon LoPresti, Northrop’s senior director of propulsion systems and controls, commented on the situation: “There's more work to be done to get to 14,000, but we've had excess capacity versus the 6,000 that we've been delivering, so we're already starting to be able to move up that curve and have a great partnership with both the US government, our partners, and our primes, to be able to allow us to do that.” He made these remarks at the AUSA conference.

Notably, Northrop manufactures its solid rocket motors at sites in West Virginia and Maryland, focusing on medium, tactical-sized motors, while its Utah facility is responsible for producing larger units, such as those for the upcoming Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).

The company has invested one billion dollars over the last six years to enhance production capacity at these locations.

“With that six-year investment, we've been able to triple the capacity at the combination of the West Virginia and Maryland sites, so primarily for the tactical rocket motors, and we're on track, within the next couple of years, to be doubling the capacity at our Utah sites for the much larger items that we build,” LoPresti added.

By Aghakazim Guliyev