Assessment of the Navy Solid Rocket Motor Production Process
Abstract
The United States Navy continues to challenge the presence of the People's Republic of China in the Indo-Pacific region. To strengthen the deterrence posture, the 2022 National Defense Strategy emphasizes the expansion of missile capabilities through the acquisition of missile systems. The propulsion system is the heart of the missile, thus increasing the solid rocket motor (SRM) production rate will directly correlate to the increase of the missile inventory. SRM production process encompasses two major processes: fabrication and qualification. As such, this thesis conducts a thorough analysis of the PEO IWS 3.0 fabrication process and qualification process. When analyzing the fabrication process, amongst all fabrication activities, order procurement has the most significant impact in total fabrication duration. When analyzing the qualification process, SpaceX compressed, which includes early requirement analysis, rapid prototyping, and testing in parallel, is the most time efficient process amongst all others. Future work in this topic should include the integration of fabrication and qualification into the overall production process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1225005
Entities
People
- Marieme Gueye
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School