The American company Raytheon offers technology for 3D printing guided missiles directly on the battlefield. According to company representatives, it is already possible to print 80% of all parts of missile weapons, including the warhead of a guided missile. Today, Raytheon Corporation is one of the largest military-industrial associations in the world, with annual sales of $ 25 billion (including $ 16 billion in the US defense market), data for 2012 is given. Raytheon is one of the five largest contractors for the Pentagon and is the leading American developer and manufacturer of missile weapons and radio systems, including modern air defense systems. The corporation considers itself the largest manufacturer of guided missiles on the planet.
The original goal of the American missile manufacturer was to use 3D printing technology to optimize systems for launching long-range missiles designed to engage high-altitude targets in all weather conditions. But now the Raytheon corporation says that the results of the development can be applied to the production of guided missiles in the field. This technology, according to the manufacturer, will help to establish the process of assembling weapons directly at the site of hostilities.
Defense company Raytheon Missile Systems has announced that it can already print almost all the components of modern guided missile weapons. Using 3D printing, you can create a rocket body, engines, rudders, parts of a targeting system, and much more. The company believes that in the future, modern technology will allow missiles to be printed directly in the combat zone, including on warships, which can significantly affect the very tactics of warfare. The introduction of such an innovative technology would greatly facilitate the work of military logisticians and provide an opportunity to use exactly the weapon that is needed, and not the one that is currently in the warehouse.
It is worth noting that progress in the development of 3D printing technology is moving quite rapidly. There are many benefits to 3D printing. For example, you can quickly redesign products and reduce costs by manufacturing locally and avoiding shipping. If we talk about missiles, now only 3D printing of microcircuits is difficult for engineers, but this problem is being solved, for example, modern 3D printers are already able to create simple electronic circuits. At the same time, three-dimensional printers have unique capabilities, which include the creation of warheads of complex shapes that are difficult to produce using traditional technologies. Thus, it becomes possible to print unique warheads designed to solve specific tasks, which include the destruction of targets with minimal collateral damage.
An innovative manufacturing process from the American company Raytheon allows you to combine printed metals, engines, propellants, explosives and other components that can be created using 3D printers in one rocket. As a result, such a rocket requires minimal assembly. In addition, engineers have already found a way to connect using 3D printing of conductors and dielectrics, and also learned how to print structures from carbon nanotubes. That is, it became possible to print simple electronic components. Fewer factory components will be required for the final assembly of a printed rocket. Raytheon is currently working on technology for printing complex silicon chips.
The use of three-dimensional printing for the creation of guided missiles will make it possible to achieve significant savings in resources on the delivery of goods to the battlefield and will improve the tactical and technical characteristics of missiles. At the same time, the economic efficiency of a weapon is a rather complex quantity, which includes not only the cost of the product, but also the cost of operation, including logistics. The 3D printing method can solve many problems, since the delivery of raw materials (silica sand, metal powder, synthetic resins, clays, etc.) to the battlefields is much easier than the delivery of expensive missiles.
Before the military can actually print missiles in the field, it needs a streamlined, controlled manufacturing process for all the parts, says Chris McCarroll, vice rector of Raytheon's Lowell Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. The complexity will also lie in the final assembly of the elements. In the relatively near future, it will be possible to use chips to connect components by printing. According to Raytheon engineer Jeremy Danforth, his company has already 3D printed demo versions of missile homing heads, and other manufacturers have already produced warheads for real guided missiles. At the moment, Raytheon is able to print up to 80% of all components that go into the assembly of missiles.
“With 3D printing, you can define the design features of the inner surface, which cannot be done with a conventional machine. We are experimenting with lightweight materials and construction to improve the properties of rockets. This is something we could never have achieved with any other manufacturing technology available,”Raytheon engineer Travis Mayberry explained to reporters. “Today we have a certain hierarchical scheme of the production process. We manufacture the frame, housing, circuit boards from the appropriate materials, and then assemble them into one finished product. What we think is possible in the near future is 3D printing of electronic elements, but, nevertheless, with the need for subsequent assembly. Ultimately, we would like to print everything at once - the finished product,”said Chris McCarroll.
