Sentinel Missile Solid Fuel Rocket Motors

The Sentinel missile will be incorporating 3 solid fuel rocket motors (Solid Rocket Motors - SRM) to provide the necessary boost to carry the Reentry Vehicle up into the atmosphere and deliver the RV to its intended target.

Northrop Grumman will be responsible for the manufacture of both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 rocket motors.

June 6 2018 marked the date when Orbital ATK merged with Northrop Grumman, providing Northrop Grumman with the ability to build both the first and second stage rocket motors for the Sentinel missile.

Aerojet Rocketdyne (L3 Harris) will be developing and manufacturing the 3rd stage rocket motor for the Sentinel missile.

Current estimates for the total number of Sentinel missiles to be produced is 642.

From that total, 450 of those missiles will be used to deploy at the 400 active missile silos. Over 180 missiles will be used periodically to demonstrate that the Sentinel missile works (test launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base) and the the remainder will be used as developmental test vehicles.

This author was able to tour the Northrop Grumman Winding plant in October 2022. Suffice it to say, this was an increbile experience. Realizing that the two rocket motors the plant was currently working on during this tour would be used on an acutal Sentinel missile was a profound experience.

There were two main spindles with two separate boosters in different phases of the winding process. The Winding plant has a large oven that allows the plant to "cook" the finished rocket motor to finalize the process. The solid fuel rocket propellant is added later.

The winding plant technicians shared with this author that the first stage rocket motor, from start to finish, takes approximately two to three months. In October 2022, the winding plant were planning to manufacture 90 first stage solid fuel rocket motors in one year.