Raytheon inaugurated its new missile integration and testing facility on Nov 26 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The co...
The complex built the first U.S. rockets in the 1950s and later produced the massive Saturn V that launched astronauts to the moon.
The new $75 million, 70,000 square-foot facility will produce the Standard Missile-3 , a defensive weapon used to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
It will also produce the Standard Missile-6 , which defends naval vessels against fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles.
Raytheon designed the factory from scratch with the latest robotics and computer-controlled tools, said Randy Stevenson, Weapon Integration Center director.
“Nothing was left to chance and no idea was discounted,” Stevenson said. “We started with a blank sheet.”
Designers used a virtual reality chamber, the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, at Raytheon’s Missile Systems business in Arizona to test all aspects of the factory long before the first girders were placed in the ground.
“The CAVE allowed us to remove the typical trial-and-error process,” said Manny Gamez, manager of Advanced Manufacturing.
For designing the factory, Raytheon officials studied workflow processes at Mercedes, Toyota and major appliance manufacturers. The goal was to transfer the production information learned in those industries to the missile integration and testing process.
The new plant features a fleet of laser-guided transport vehicles that silently move missiles around the factory. These vehicles run on powerful lithium batteries and have their own internal positioning systems.
The robotic, automatic guided vehicles carry up to five tons and use lasers and software to position missiles within 1/10,000 of an inch.
The vehicles have eliminated all 16 of the so-called “critical lifts” involved in building each missile, Larson said. And the factory’s machinery can handle future designs as well.
The first SM-6 is set to leave the new plant in February 2013.
SM-3s from the factory will be a critical piece of the U.S. government’s Phased Adaptive Approach for defending Europe against ballistic missile threats. The U.S. plan calls for sea- and land-based missile interceptors as well as a range of sensors.
