Weapons
Weapons: Giving Warfighters the Edge
Game changing solutions to support our military’s end-to-end fight
Northrop Grumman offers solutions that give our forces the edge throughout the entirety of their missions.
The difference between success and failure in the battlespace can often come down to who has the technological advantage. It’s why we build weapons that don’t just work, they give our forces the edge.
For decades, Northrop Grumman has protected U.S. forces and our allies by designing, developing and delivering weapons of increasing complexity and capabilities for expanded missions and domains. We continue to build upon that legacy to pioneer weapons that consistently outmatch the range, speed, precision and firepower of fielded enemy weapon systems, with the parameters of current platforms in mind.
Northrop Grumman’s weapon solutions define possible from tip-to-tail, integrating legacy capabilities with innovative technology for the toughest missions with increased survivability, speed to the field, and affordability at the forefront.
Increased Survivability
In recent years, the U.S. military and our allies have pivoted toward addressing peer and near-peer threats. To respond to these adversaries, technology must be able to match, or ideally exceed, the technology of these emerging threats.
Survivability is at the forefront of design, development and upgrades for Northrop Grumman weapon creation. It’s paramount that our warfighters are able to execute their missions effectively and reliably. Weapons navigate in harsh conditions and operate in the world’s most thermal extremes. Using the best materials science, our weapons are built to withstand environmental conditions and electronic threats to complete any mission.
FEATURED ARTICLE
Hypersonics Breakthroughs Are Boosting Range, Speed and Survivability
AARGM(-ER)
Northrop Grumman’s AARGM-ER is a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile system, upgrading legacy Advanced Anti Radiation Guided Missile systems with advanced range to perform suppression and destruction of enemy air defense missions.
AARGM-ER is the most advanced system for pilots against today’s modern surface-to-air threats. It is able to rapidly engage land- and sea-based air-defense threats, as well as striking, time-sensitive targets.
Extended Range Rocket Motors
Northrop Grumman, as a systems integrator, and as a components provider, works with weapons users to find extended range solutions that achieve performance objectives, quickly and affordably. By balancing all considerations, Northrop Grumman provides an optimum system approach that brings extended range to new and existing weapon systems alike.
Hypersonic and Supersonic Propulsion
Northrop Grumman is an industry leader in hypersonic propulsion. Leveraging our hypersonic expertise and wind tunnel facilities to expand design, prototype, & test capability to including additive manufacturing.
Northrop Grumman is able to bring truly integrated solutions that are more affordable, reliable, capable, innovative, and deployed rapidly. Learn more about the Counter Hypersonics Mission >
Fuzing
Electronic fuzes are safe and reliable, making them increasingly preferred to legacy mechanical and electro-mechanical fuzes for the benefits they bring to modern weapons systems.
Artillery Fuzes, Battlefield Survivability and Testing Capability
Artillery fuzes must be able to survive a gun launch. The fuze must be protected from: the G-force of the launch; the shock of the round leaving the gun; and temperature changes in flight. As it’s moving, temperature flucuations can range from ambient to extreme heat and then cool rapidly while it’s moving.
Counter UAS (C-UAS)
Drones are a threat on the battlefield and enemy targets can send back information that discloses locations. The ability to counter these drones improves surviv…
Tank Ammunition Upgrades
With our ammunition improvements, we’ve been able to keep the Abrams tank viable on the battlefield for more than 40 years.
Close Terrain Shaping Obstacles
Combined with our networked munitions that can be controlled and turned on and off, this ability allows us to create a protective barrier for warfighters to let…
AAR47
Laser and missile warning system for low flying aircraft. It detects weapons and provides ability to shoot down and aircraft.
Lethality Enhanced Ordnance (LEO)
The Northrop Grumman LEO is a key element in survivability since it eliminates unexploded ordnance left on the battlefield.
- It contains no submunitions while providing equal or greater performance required by the warfighter.
- The LEO can replace a traditional warhead with a LEO warhead of the same size and equal performance is achieved.
- This smaller warhead frees up space within the missile system for a larger rocket motor, thus extending the munitions range.
- It’s scalable and has been successfully tested on warheads as small as ½ lb to up to 250 lbs.
Cyber Survivability
It’s no longer enough for a weapon to be merely cyber resilient, but be cyber survivable as well. Cyber resiliency ensures that a system, or the infrastructure on which it depends, can withstand and recover from an attack. Cyber survivability, however, is the ability for a system to fight through and continue its mission in the presence a of threat. Northrop Grumman has developed a wide array of survivable solutions that can withstand a punch from an adversary in any challenged environment.
Speed to the Field
Adversaries have evolved, and they are much more sophisticated in both tactics and weaponry. Northrop Grumman invests in research and development to pioneer weapons that warfighters need to support their future fights.
Northrop Grumman’s digital engineering tools and streamlined manufacturing techniques support evaluating weapon variants and inform design alternatives at the warfighter campaign level quickly. We act with speed to get weapons into the hands of our warfighters sooner.
Faster Decision Making for Our Warfighters
We deliver speed in decision making. Our C-UAS capabilities use machine learning and artificial intelligence to more quickly identify targets. It helps warfighters make faster decisions by relieving the cognitive load on the crew…they don’t have to think through every scenario on the battlefield.
Affordability
The U.S. military and our allies seek weapons that don’t just work, they seek weapons that give them the edge, with affordability in mind.
Northrop Grumman offers affordability in several ways, keeping in mind that the best weapons are the ones that meet our warfighter’s mission requirements and offer affordable mass.
- We take our expertise in platforms, modeling, sensing, glide bodies, propulsion and payloads, to integrate the best of breed into a comprehensive tip-to-tail weapons solution.
- We apply ingenuity to propose improvements to systems already used by our forces today that can benefit from an increase in capabilities and be deployed rapidly.
- We use digital engineering to evaluate and inform our design alternatives against mission requirements.
- We implore new manufacturing techniques that save time and keep costs down.
Beyond Line of Sight Applications
Keeping our warfighters safe is a top priority for Northrop Grumman. We have introduced new gun technology and ammunition that our forces can precisely fire without being spotted by our adversaries. We make it possible for tanks to become an asset on the battlefield for longer ranges, with no new platforms needed.
Hatchet
A Precise, Surgical Strike
A precision mini weapon for all airborne platforms, the Hatchet is a six-pound, air delivered glide weapon. It has a Lethality Enhanced Ordnance (LEO) warhead that provides the capability of weapons in the several hundred pound class.
The Hatchet provides a speed advantage when paired with a drone to identify targets, it could rapidly service the target.
Scramjets / Ramjets
Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion to enable sustained flight at hypersonic speeds. Such speeds reduce flight times and increase weapon survivability, effectiveness and flexibility.
Other partnerships for extended range motors:
Safer Rocket Motors
Northrop Grumman was able to introduce all the safety benefits of Insensitive Missile (IM) technology and retain the rocket motor’s performance, without significantly changing the current design of the missile.
We made these motors to the exact size of rocket motors in the Hellfire Missile and GMLRS missile so the Army can improve safety without a redesign.
