Mentor team tests solid rocket motors to propel development and production.
Hearing the Roar
40 Years at Rocket Center
By Brandon Hartman
When the deep rumbles echoed across the hills and valleys near his childhood home, Mike Otto would pause whatever he was doing to listen.
Those sounds — distant roars bouncing off surrounding ridges — sparked something in him. Growing up just down the road from the Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant at the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) in West Virginia— an area known locally as Rocket Center — Mike didn’t just hear the rocket motor tests; he dreamed of being part of them.
That dream would eventually become a reality. Forty years ago, Mike walked through ABL’s gates for the first time, starting as a technician manufacturing hardware for rocket motor designs. He remembers the hands-on precision of that early work.
“Back then, computers were just being introduced into engineering work,” said Mike, who today works as an engineering manager for Northrop Grumman in the ABL.
“There were just a few shared workstations for all engineers to share, and PCs weren’t being deployed across the site until a few years later. We were using a lot of 1950s era manual equipment with no computer driven capability.”
Featured second from the right, Mike Otto stands with colleagues in front of his first project back in 1985 for which he made the nozzle being tested.
Powered by Innovation
Over the decades, Mike watched ABL — and the work itself — transform. In anticipation of growing global demand, Northrop Grumman has proactively invested over $1 billion since 2018 in solid rocket motor and missile technologies. Several hundred million of that investment has been at Rocket Center, with the site more than doubling in size since Mike’s early days.
What were once open fields and barns are now state-of-the-art facilities — all supporting national security efforts through developing and manufacturing solid rocket motors, medium-caliber ammunition, payloads and fuzing critical to defense systems that keep U.S. and allied warfighters safe.
As ABL’s capabilities and infrastructure expanded, so did Mike’s expertise and career. He would absorb newer tools as the years went on — personally helping introduce CNC machining equipment that use computer programs to guide cutting tools with extreme precision.
Today, Mike leads many of the operations and processes in ABL’s integrated machine shop, where his team produces metal and composite hardware essential to plant operations and advanced missile systems. Utilizing innovations such as advanced propellant, robotic manufacturing and innovative data collection processes, Mike and his colleagues help Northrop Grumman develop new rocket motors in record time that can travel farther, faster and more affordably than ever.
“It’s incredible to see how far we’ve come as an industry and a site,” said Mike. “The advanced systems and technology we use were simply unimaginable back then. But what hasn’t changed is the pride people have in their work here.”
Mike Otto leads many of the operations and processes in ABL's integrated machine shop.
Preserving Peace Through Strength
ABL’s mission has always been tightly bound to national security, being at the heart of American innovation and military technology leadership since the 1940s. As part of Northrop Grumman, many of the nation’s tactical solid rocket motors are produced at ABL, with teams continuing to push the boundaries on next-generation propulsion technology.
Rocket Center brings four critical technologies — metals, electronics, composites and energetics — together on one campus, providing greater agility, capacity and the ability to respond to evolving defense needs.
For Mike, every piece built is a part of something bigger than himself. It’s about ensuring our U.S. military’s readiness, deterrence and the safety of warfighters. And it’s about pushing forward technology — making rocket motors safer, hardware more endurable, designing composites that shave weight while maintaining strength, and electronics and fuzes that reliably function under extreme conditions.
“It is amazing to work with so many talented professionals who all believe in a mission with meaning and are committed to helping warfighters stay mission ready to deter and defeat threats all over the world,” said Mike.
“What we manufacture is used by the greatest fighting forces in the world. It is a sacred trust every employee here understands and are ready to support.”
From hearing the rocket tests as a boy to leading the teams that help make them possible, Mike’s journey mirrors Rocket Center’s own transformation — rooted in tradition, powered by innovation, and driven by a lifelong dedication to excellence.
Life at Northrop Grumman
Your work at Northrop Grumman makes a difference. Whether you want to design next-generation aircraft, harness digital technologies or build spacecraft that will return humanity to the moon, you’ll contribute to technology that’s transforming the world. Check out our career opportunities to see how you can help define possible.
