Jane Edwards
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman performed a live fire test of the first stage solid rocket motor on Thursday in Promontory, Utah, in support of the development of the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic boost glide missile system and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon program.
CPS and LRHW systems share a common hypersonic missile that can be launched from land-based mobile launchers, surface ships and submarines, Lockheed said Thursday.
Lockheed is the prime integrator for the weapon systems and Northrop is the developer of the motor meant to deliver boost capability to the two service branches’ hypersonic strike missile systems.
The Navy said the rocket motor, which met performance objectives and parameters during the test, will be integrated with a common hypersonic glide body in order to build a common hypersonic missile for use by the Navy and the Army.
The services plan to conduct a joint test flight in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 to advance the rollout of their CPS and LRHS weapons systems.
