Read about the latest innovations and developments around Sentinel.
Sentinel
Enabling Peace through Deterrence
About Sentinel
For more than six decades, a safe, secure, and effective strategic deterrent has served as the bedrock of United States (U.S.) national security. To keep pace with the current threat environment, the U.S. is spearheading a critical modernization of the current land-based leg of the nuclear triad, known as the U.S. Air Force's Sentinel ICBM.
Historic in scope and complexity, this once-in-a-generation system includes a new missile, a vast command, control, and communications capability, and hundreds of infrastructure projects, including hardened facilities spread across thousands of miles in five states.
This next-generation Sentinel system replaces the current Minuteman III, which has been in service for more than 50 years. Delivering on this capability is a Northrop Grumman-led team responsible for designing and producing the most technologically advanced portion of this new ground-based strategic deterrent, designed to be viable through 2075.
The value and power and strength of this force is in its existence, in the message and the stabilizing factor it has across the fabric of the globe, for any potential adversary that has bad intentions.
Recent Accomplishments
In partnership with the United States Air Force, we completed a static test of the Sentinel stage-one solid rocket motor. This program milestone supports the modernization of the nation’s land-based leg of the nuclear triad. (U.S. Air Force photo by R. Nial Bradshaw)
Advancing the Missile
New Design, Latest Technologies
The Sentinel missile features a new, three-stage booster design. The booster is a new design, using the latest materials and design technologies to improve performance, reliability, safety, and sustainability.
Together with the Air Force, the Northrop Grumman team has demonstrated all propulsive elements of the Sentinel missile. These include test firing stages-one, -two and -three and completing a hot-fire test of the post boost propulsion system (PBPS). The PBPS is a liquid propulsion system that propels the Post Boost Attitude Control Module, which is responsible for positioning the reentry vehicle during exo-atmospheric flight.
Northrop Grumman team also conducted interstage separation tests of the Sentinel missile. These demonstrated the ability of the missile to cleanly separate the spent solid rocket motor stages one and two from the rest of the vehicle, critical to the flight staging sequence.
Verified Testing
Other key missile progress by the team includes a shroud fly-off test at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. This proved that digital modeling predictions are solid, as the test verified the shroud, which protects the missile’s payload in flight.
At the company’s Strategic Missile Test and Production Complex in Promontory, Utah, the team also performed a stack test to evaluate the forward and aft sections of the missile. The team gleaned important data about in-flight structural dynamics that continue to help engineers validate assumptions and fine-tune models ahead of further demonstrations and tests.
Leading up to these milestones were a series of rigorous wind tunnel tests of scaled models of the vehicle, stressed under environments from sub to hypersonic speeds, that validated digital modeling and simulations and proved design maturity.
More Than A Silo
Performance at Scale
Northrop Grumman and other suppliers have been working shoulder-to-shoulder since day one. Together, they developed a process of information sharing and stakeholder engagement that has fostered a deep understanding of Sentinel’s tightly coupled weapon system and infrastructure requirements. This understanding has proven critical, as these two elements need to be engineered and verified together as a system to ensure performance at scale.
In addition to data gleaned from jointly inspecting 16 existing silos, the team built a mock-up of a Minuteman lower launch tube at Hill Air Force Base, in Roy, Utah. The tube included a variety of built-in conditions to simulate wear and tear or other challenging conditions in order to drive risk mitigation for the program.
Digital Ecosystem
Innovation at its Core
The Sentinel missile represents technology advancements made possible through digital engineering, advanced facilities and tooling, and a modular, open-architecture approach. Northrop Grumman is transforming how this next generation system is being designed and produced, with innovation at its core.
Through its current Minuteman III sustainment role, Northrop Grumman is benefitting from 65 years of experience and data to support silo modernization. Our experts share lessons learned, and our access to years of maintenance and sustainment records allow us to analyze and develop predictive models. Cutting-edge simulation capabilities further inform these models. For example, the company is using a highly interactive virtual environment that allows engineers to simulate maintenance activities to ensure that they are safe, repeatable, and effective.
Critical Partnerships
Nationwide Team Driving Progress
Given the scope of this project, Northrop Grumman has formed a nationwide team of more than 10,000 dedicated professionals across multiple industries to execute on this vital national security program.
In partnership with the Air Force and our world-class team of suppliers, we will continue driving progress to deploy a modernized weapon system that meets warfighter requirements, is mission ready, and will ensure a safe, secure, and credible deterrent capability for decades to come.
Sentinel Careers
We invest in people, facilities, and tools needed to deliver the Sentinel solution.
