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Rocketdyne and Aerojet Upgrade Kill-Vehicle Engines
By JEREMY SINGER
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 11:46 am ET, 02 December 2003
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WASHINGTON — Boeing Rocketdyne and Aerojet are spending millions of dollars to upgrade their respective missile defense kill-vehicle engines in hopes that the investments will pay off in the form of billion-dollar future contracts.
The upgraded engines are needed to stay ahead of missile technology advancements made by countries like China and North Korea, said Bill Burns, director of missile defense and strategic propulsion for Boeing Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power of Seal Beach, Calif.
Boeing developed its existing Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS) for the U.S. Army’s Theater High Altitude Area Defense system, which is slated for deployment later this decade. GenCorp Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., developed its DACS engine for the initial U.S. national missile defense system, which is slated for activation at Fort Greely, Alaska, in late 2004.
The current Aerojet engine can achieve about 800 pounds of thrust, said Peter Massey, executive director of the missile defense business segment at Aerojet.
Both companies recently ground-tested upgraded variants of their respective engines that will be able to achieve about 1,100 pounds of thrust.
The added power could enable the use of larger kill vehicles, Massey said. More power could also give the system more margin for reliability, Burns said.
While the kill vehicles on the initial U.S. missile defense systems will provide a "credible defense" against the missile threat, continuous upgrades are necessary, said Baker Spring, a defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a think tank here.
During testing at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, N.M., in early October, a prototype of Boeing’s upgraded DACS engine successfully generated 1,100 pounds of thrust, Burns said. The company began developing the new engine in early 2003.
Aerojet is testing its upgraded DACS engine at its own facilities, and has achieved 1,050 pounds of thrust thus far, Massey said. The company is pushing to reach a higher thrust goal, which Massey declined to specify.
Boeing and Aerojet believe the primary application for their new engines will be in the national rather than theater missile defense arena.
Upgrades to the initial national missile defense system, known formally as the Ground Based Midcourse Defense Segment, could generate more than $1 billion in upgraded DACS business over 10 years, Burns said. A U.S. decision to deploy space-based interceptors could generate a similar level of DACS business, he said.
Burns and Massey said their respective DACS upgrades would not require significant modifications for use on space-based interceptors. But they also said they are looking at different oxidizers to increase the performance of the engines while reducing their weight.
The existing DACS engines use hydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. Both Aerojet and Boeing are examining the use of fluorine-based oxidizers, which may create more energy aboard space-based interceptors.
The different oxidizer is being examined only for the space-based interceptors because conserving payload weight is more of an issue on the satellites that will orbit in space rather than the rockets that will be kept on the ground, Massey said.
More powerful DACS engines also could be used to increase the performance of the re-entry vehicles on the next generation of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, Burns said.
Boeing and Aerojet are also looking at possible civil space applications for their new DACS engines.
Comments: jsinger@space.com
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