Nammo tests ramjet motor

UPDATED TO ADD NORWEGIAN MOD AND NAMMO STATEMENTS, PROGRAM DETAILS.

WASHINGTON: DoD and Norway’s Defense Ministry today announced that they are partnering on development of ramjet propulsion technologies, which the US Navy and Army have been eying to power future hypersonic missiles. The agreement is the first to be publicly revealed under DoD’s new Allied Prototyping Initiative (API), led by Mike Griffin’s office for research and engineering.

The bilateral effort to explore advanced solid fuel ramjet technologies is called the “Tactical High-speed Offensive Ramjet for Extended Range, or THOR-ER,” DoD said in its press release. THOR-ER “aims to cooperatively develop and integrate advancements in solid fuel ramjet technologies into full-size prototypes that are affordable, attain high-speeds, and achieve extended range, culminating in flight demonstrations in operationally relevant conditions,” DoD explained.

UPDATE BEGINS. “The goal is to develop prototypes able to demonstrate 300-350 km guided flight at high supersonic speeds. The program intends to do so by launching an initial unguided prototype in 2021 to verify the capabilities of the propulsion system, followed by a controlled missile launch 2-3 years later,” explained Frank Møller, Nammo’s VP of Business Development for Aerospace Propulsion, in a written statement provided to Breaking D today (April 21). UPDATE ENDS.

Morten Tiller, Norwegian National Armaments director, said in the DoD statement that the work  “incorporates the results of long term R&D on missile and rocket technology in Norway.”

THOR-ER is based in part on an ongoing collaboration between the Navy’s Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division China Lake, the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and Nammo, a Norwegian rocket engine and ammunition company with a growing US presence.

UPDATE BEGINS. “THOR-ER was first initiated in 2019 as a bilateral program between the U.S. and Norwegian governments, and relevant government labs in those two nations, the U.S. Navy Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division with associated test centers, and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. Nammo has been involved from the start as an industry partner. The program however also benefits from past joint projects and the decades long cooperation that has existed between Nammo and US facilities such as China Lake,” Møller explained.

“Needless to say, the THOR-ER project is very promising. Not only will this ramjet-technology provide a game changing capability for our Armed Forces, it also brings bilateral cooperation to a whole new level,” Tiller told Breaking D in an April 21 written statement. “In my opinion, this merger of complementary US and Norwegian R&D efforts and engineering skills strengthens alliance innovation, in addition it represents an opportunity for closer defence industrial base cooperation. To stay ahead of potential adversaries, allies need to cooperate to better utilize our collective resources, be it innovative talent, finances or production capabilities.” UPDATE ENDS.

Nammo and Boeing inked an agreement at last year’s Paris Air Show to jointly develop and produce the next generation of extended-range artillery projectiles, based on Nammo’s ramjet technology.  The Army is eyeing ramjet-boosted shells for its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA), which in its current iteration is doubling the range of Army howitzers to over 40 miles (65 km) using conventional ammo built by BAE.

Traditional rocket motors need to carry oxidizer as part of their propellant, and because the oxidizer uses more volume, as little as 20% of the propellant is actual fuel. Ramjets, on the other hand, ‘scoop’ air out of the atmosphere into a compressor and thus can carry more fuel — which allows much longer rangers.

“This continuation is an important next step in advancing high-speed propulsion technologies with our Norwegian partners,” Griffin elaborated in the statement. “It will drive fielding of the critical technologies needed to ensure U.S. and Allied military superiority in hypersonic systems.”

THOR-ER development work “started in late 2019, and current plans call for the program to be concluded by the end of 2024,” a DoD spokesperson Breaking Defense today in an email response to questions. The program is funded jointly, with “equitable contributions”, by DoD and the Norwegian MoD, the spokesperson added, but would not comment on the exact amounts.

While the spokesman confirmed that the THOR-ER effort was primarily aimed at “informing US Navy efforts related to hypersonic weapons,” DoD further refused to comment on what specific projects are targeted:

“We are not going to discuss potential systems where technology informed by the THOR-ER project may or may not be used. While the individual services are working on hypersonics development, the department, through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, is providing overall guidance on the development of this technology. Hypersonics is one of 11 department modernization priorities. The THOR-ER effort aims to cooperatively develop and integrate advancements in solid fuel ramjet technologies into full-size prototypes that are affordable, attain high-speeds, fit on a variety of Navy or Air Force aircraft and achieve extended range, culminating in flight demonstrations in operationally relevant conditions.”

As Sydney and I reported last week, DoD seeks $2.9 billion in 2021 to fund a wide variety of hypersonic missile development projects. These include several DARPA efforts to design and develop ramjet propulsion based missiles, initially aimed to transition to the Air Force.

And, as Paul reported earlier this month, the Navy is pushing fast on hypersonic missile development with plans to test a submarine-launched missile by the middle of this year.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Technology Disposal Technology Division in 2017 signed a public-private partnership with Nammo’s Indian Head subsidiary in Maryland that would allow joint manufacturing, including of solid rocket motors, as well as demilitarization of old ordnance.

Nammo announced in October that it had completed initial development tests of its ramjet motor concept for potential use with air-, ground- and sea-launched missiles.

Also in October, Nammo AS, announced it was unifying its separate US entities into one legal construct, called Nammo Defense Systems, as well as sinking more investment into US manufacturing. The firm currently has nine manufacturing facilities in the United States, and in November signed a conditional agreement with Chemring Group to acquire one of its subsidiaries, Chemring Ordnance Inc., located in Perry, Fla.

“Nammo’s new propulsion solutions are closing the range gap between the US and its future potential adversaries. Our involvement in THOR-ER allows us to bring together the best of US and Norwegian propulsion technology through the framework of a bilateral US-Norwegian partnership, and this fits perfectly with our long term ambitions,” said Morten Brandtzæg, president and CEO of Nammo Group, in the DoD announcement.

The API program was announced by Griffin in on Jan. 13, but actually launched in mid-2019. The program was briefed to a number of allied nations, including Norway and Sweden at that time.

“The API leverages existing prototyping program expertise and funding sources to co-develop leap-ahead capabilities through cooperation with trusted allies whose industrial capacity, capability and workforce strategically complement those of the United States,” said Griffin, in the January announcement. “The end result will be interoperable prototypes developed on an equitable basis, delivered to coalition forces faster, with demonstrated potential for eventual co-production by the U.S. and allied industrial base.”

According to a briefing presented on May 16, 2019 to a US-Sweden Defense Industry Conference, the focus of the API program will be the 10 priority technology modernization areas under Griffin’s shop, including hypersonics.