Ferocious firepower: The launch of an Exocet missile, developed by MBDA
These straitened economic times have affected the defence budgets of governments all over the world. The mantra “do more with less” is filtering through to the engineers who develop the weapons, vehicles and other systems used by armed forces, leading not just to more innovative designs, but also the innovative use of research and development budgets and programmes.
Perhaps the strongest evidence of this process is in missile technology. Missiles need high-technology solutions to meet demanding mission requirements in extreme environmental conditions. There is a correspondingly high cost to staying at the front of the arms race. In the UK, the Materials and Components for Missiles, Innovation and Technology Partnership (MCM-ITP) was created to do more with less while staying ahead.
The MCM-ITP is an Anglo-French programme designed to pool the early-stage R&D resources of the two governments and defence firms to develop the next generation of missile technology. The partnership is split into eight research streams, within which are R&D programmes looking at specific technologies. Areas being looked at include: sensors, materials, propulsion, warheads and fuzes.
The MCM-ITP reaches a pivotal point this year, as its members review the past five years of missile technology R&D and renew projects for another five years. Around
¤78 million have been spent within the partnership since 2007. The programme’s costs are split 50:50 between industry and the governments in both countries. It is led by European missile systems company MBDA, itself Anglo-French, which administers the 89-strong partnership. Partners include 49 academic institutions and small businesses, as well as the large firms Safran, Thales, Qinetiq, Selex and Roxel.
The programme is rapidly becoming the engine-room of the British and French missile technology sector, with its early-stage R&D shaping missile systems for the 2020s. Mark Slater, director of future systems for MBDA, says that “the vast majority” of the research projects in the MCM-ITP look to combine an increase in capability and performance while reducing costs. “As each year goes by, the tangible results of the partnership become more evident,” he says. “But the main benefit is the reaching out for innovation. We are looking for game-changers.”
Particularly interesting research is being done to adapt the technology used in mobile phone cameras for use in the cameras in missiles, says Slater. Other important areas include the development of composite materials for high-temperature components in supersonic missiles. The materials need not only to withstand temperatures of around 600°C but also, under the requirements of the MCM-ITP, to be light and easily obtainable. Existing resin-based composites cannot be used over 300°C, metals cannot be used because they weigh too much, and ceramics would be too costly.
So engineers at MBDA have turned to French materials firm Pyromeral, which has developed glass ceramic-based composites reinforced with either silicon carbide or carbon fibres, called respectively PyroSic and PyroKarb. A two-year MCM-ITP project has been developing an airframe demonstrator to prepare the material for testing for use in future British and French missiles. Pyromeral’s materials are processed using prepreg and autoclaves at low temperatures, can be handled with normal composite tools, and are already being used in heat shields and exhausts for Formula One cars.
Another project, being conducted over five years by MBDA and French government research centre Onera, has been examining materials suitable for use in hypersonic missiles. Such materials do exist, but there is a requirement for them to become more affordable and available. The researchers have produced a demonstrator nose cone from HVN-CMC that can withstand temperatures of up to 1,100°C for several minutes.
The results of MCM-ITP research are fed into British missile projects at the Weapons Science and Technology Centre. There is full transparency for projects up to technology-readiness level 3 (TRL 3), but beyond this level the development is conducted behind closed doors as British- or French-only. The collaboration within the MCM-ITP is poised to grow even further, with insiders speculating that some projects may be developed beyond TRL 3 jointly, and that Italy could become more involved in the partnership.
A Eurosceptic might see this process as the conglomeration of European defence industries. But within the defence sector, most would agree that tightening budgets and similar aims make the MCM-ITP a sensible necessity.
Richard Brooks, director of the programme office at the UK’s Defence and Science Technology Laboratory, describes the MCM-ITP as “pioneering joint UK-French funding”. “This partnership is a model for others. It delivers freedom of action by giving both governments options,” he says.
Meanwhile, individual defence firms are taking the idea of “lean” from the shopfloor to the design room. US missile systems developer Raytheon is conscious of the need to keep costs down while improving capabilities. The trend in the naval sector is for smaller boats that deliver more capabilities, says Alex Saklambanakis, business development executive at Raytheon. “Our aim is to tailor existing technology into mission-specific packages in an affordable way. The solution is built around Chemring’s Centurion Launcher.”
This launcher was originally designed to fire countermeasures because static launchers no longer provided the required distance and accuracy, says Steve Kerchey, countermeasures senior naval business manager at Chemring. But Chemring and Raytheon are modifying it to fire Raytheon missiles, independently and all 12 barrels simultaneously, to provide surface-to-air capability for small boats.
The launcher consists of 12 barrels, each measuring 130mm, in a self-contained “pod” 2m wide and weighing around one tonne. The launcher is being developed for use on corvettes and frigates. However, the companies are looking at other applications, including its use in larger boats, as protection for oil and gas fields, on drones and on support ships.
There are even ideas to put it on a six-wheeled truck for land applications, says Kerchey.
Despite the variety of applications, the aim of keeping costs down is apparent throughout the launcher’s design, Kerchey says. “It has the main mass low, close to the centre of rotation – reducing inertia and weight and making it transportable. It can provide different elevations, and each barrel can move independently using actuators and adjust for pitch and roll. The barrels are also swappable. It’s electromechanical, reducing maintenance requirements and increasing reliability.”
Raytheon and Chemring plan tests with live missiles later this year. The countermeasures version will be ready for market in 12-18 months’ time, with the capability to add missiles soon after. “This launcher offers a wide capability with low capital outlay and through-life costs,” says Kerchey.
Elsewhere, Raytheon has an initiative to reduce development costs and improve the next generation of its Paveway laser-guided bomb. Enhanced capabilities for Paveway IV, which is the UK’s primary air-to-ground weapon, include the inclusion of GPS jamming technology and improvements to the warheads.
Massive time and money savings are being made in the R&D of warheads, says TJ Marsden, Raytheon’s chief engineer of weapon systems. Engineers are using “hydrocode modelling” developed by Glasgow firm Fluid Gravity to computer-simulate explosions. Hydrocode modelling is a type of finite element analysis simulation developed to model events that happen quickly with high strain rates on the materials.
Academics have used the technique to simulate the impact of prehistoric meteorites, but Raytheon engineers are now using it to replace months of physical testing for warheads (see box, left). “Previously, you built one, detonated it and collected all the fragments. Now we can prototype before physical testing,” says Marsden.
In this project, as with many others, it seems the pressure on costs is actually stimulating innovation in the design and development processes.
From meteorites to warheads 
“Hydrocode modelling allows us to look at the fracture dynamics and consider a wider variety of warheads. We can assess a warhead in two weeks instead of six months,” says Raytheon’s TJ Marsden. Photos: Ansys