Faster farther and ready right now

Faster farther and ready right now

Raytheon's replacement for Army's Stinger missile would deliver new capabilities, combat drones

On his shoulder is a missile launcher. Before his eyes is an advanced new optic with an advanced zoom and the ability to see heat rather than light. And in the launcher is a munition that can fly farther and faster than its predecessor.

His eyes could only see a row of trees against a mountain range in the distance. But the optic sees an incoming drone. In seconds, he targets and destroys the threat.

The scenario unfolded during a virtual reality demonstration of Raytheon's proposed replacement for the Stinger missile. And it showed a glimpse into the future of defense.

Raytheon, an RTX business, built the demonstrator with two objectives: to show the U.S. Army the potential of the business' Next Generation Short Range Interceptor - and to invite operators to try it for themselves and help refine the design.

"That night scenario was a big aha moment for some of the soldiers who got on this," said Lindsey Hoffman, Raytheon's Next Generation Short-Range Interceptor capture manager. "There was a quote from a Marine, who looked at us and said, 'This takes the fear away.' That quote stuck with all of us."

What can the Next Generation Short-Range Interceptor do?

The current Stinger missile, made by Raytheon, can be fired off the shoulder, from an armored Stryker vehicle or an air-based platform like an Apache helicopter. More than 19 countries have depended on the system for over 40 years. Hundreds of the launchers are in use today.

But the battlefield is changing. Weapons have longer ranges. There are more drones, and they're hard to target. Air spaces are harder to access. So, it became clear that the Stinger missile, effective as it had been needed an upgrade.

"The legacy Stinger is still the best portable air defense system in the world," said Brenda Ortiz, Raytheon's vice president for short-and medium-range ground-based air defense, "but what we can do with the Next Generation Short-Range Interceptor is really going to take it to the next level."

In less than two years, Raytheon designed a prototype, incorporated soldier feedback and successfully tested the prototype's 10 subsystems. In October, its creators plan to fly the full missile system for the first time.

Developing first-of-its-kind technology

Usually, you can make a missile fly far, but it won't be as fast. Or you can make it faster, only it won't fly as far. So, how do you make a missile that can do both?

According to Raytheon's Land and Air Defense Systems technology director Will Strauss, you build something completely new.

Raytheon worked with Northrop Grumman to design a highly loaded grain solid rocket motor, which benefits from packing fuel more densely to improve performance without increasing the motor's size. In less than six months, they held the first ever live-fire test of a highly loaded grain solid rocket motor at Northrop Grumman's Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in West Virgina.

"The beauty of this rocket motor design is two things," Strauss said. "Number one, because it's a highly loaded grain, it allows you to have more of your volume occupied by propulsion energetics, so I can fit more total impulse into the same size rocket motor. That's a deal, but it's not the biggest deal. The big deal is the burn rate enhancement, which allows you to tailor, almost unrestricted, the burn profile of the motor."

Think of the burn profile like a car's acceleration. You'd press the accelerator to speed up quickly (boost phase), then ease off to maintain speed (cruise phase). Most rocket motors struggle to make that transition quickly. The new rocket motor increases the turndown ratio - the span between the highest and lowest thrust levels at boost and cruise phases - allowing for smoother shifts, higher speeds and increased range. This flexibility means it can quickly accelerate, then reduce speed to conserve fuel while efficiently reaching its target.

"It's hard to squeeze extra range out of such a small tube. The whole missile is 5 feet long by 2 and 3/4 inches in diameter. It's not very big, and a bunch of that space is dedicated to all the electronics, controls and the seeker," Strauss said. "The rocket motor itself is a really, really fixed volume, so it is challenging to get more range out of it, but we are getting a significant amount."

Soldiers will not only be able to fly missiles farther and faster, they'll also be able to detect threats sooner with an advanced seeker.

Inspired by the proven technology on its AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, Raytheon designed an infrared seeker with a focal plane array detector. The detector captures a video like a camera to provide more detail even for small targets like drones, which give off less heat and are harder to spot.

It's compatible with vehicle- and air-based platform launchers, but for the shoulder-mounted version, the optic is built into a lightweight command launch unit, based on Javelin Weapon System's shoulder-mounted anti-tank missile. The gunner presses the unit to their eye and can zoom, see through darkness with infrared capability, and aim with improved tracking that calculates exactly how to lead the target.

The new system is also compatible with Stinger's gripstock so soldiers can shed the lightweight command launch unit if they need a simpler system for airborne missions.

"When we briefed that to the Army capabilities manager at Fort Sill, they were elated that we had kept that in our design," said Bill Darne, Raytheon's director of short-range air defense and counter UAS capabilities.

Incorporating soldier feedback

At one of the soldier touchpoints at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, the team watched as dozens of soldiers experienced the new capabilities through the virtual reality demonstrator. As they watched, they noticed something: The gunner would have a drastic improvement in visibility with the new optic, but the team chief, who's responsible for identifying threats, would still be using binoculars.

"We said, "We're going to develop a tablet, and this tablet is going to provide the same data, the same optics and video that the gunner's going to see," Darne said. "The team chief is going to have all the data - heading, speed, altitude, all the things that you would you sort of interrogate, look at and process before you make a decision. And it was a big hit."

The soldiers also offered suggestions for how to improve the design. For instance, the adapter kit that made it possible to use Javelin's lightweight command launch unit was heavy and required an awkward cord. After hearing from multiple users that it would be much easier to use if it were lighter and sleeker, the team engineered a new design that took about 13 pounds off the total weight. With an assist from another RTX business, Collins Aerospace, the team shrunk a radio device to the size of a pack of gum.

If selected, Darne said, the virtual reality demonstrator could also help train soldiers. Today, training is limited to special facilities at only a few bases, but the demonstrator could be shipped around the world.

Darne joined Raytheon after retiring from the Army where he most recently served as a colonel responsible for modernizing air missile defense. Over his military career, he was deployed in several countries with missile defense systems including Patriot, and he led a battalion in Korea outfitted with Stinger missiles.

When it was time to retire, he decided to join Raytheon to build the next generation of air defense.

"We have to provide our soldiers, our warfighters, the capability that delivers every time - not some of the time, not half the time, every time. I will tell you it's the number one reason I joined this company when I retired," Darne said. "After all the different interviews, it really came down to, I spent 27 years on systems that Raytheon had developed, delivered, sustained and maintained in the field. There was never a time when I didn't have absolute confidence that our systems were going to work the way they were designed and developed to work. And that's a pretty good feeling."