Composable weapons: A jump-start on production

Composable weapons: A jump-start on production

New design strategy and facilities help Raytheon accelerate advanced weapon development

It's the largest of its kind Raytheon has ever built, and when it comes online, its job will be to carry pieces of missiles in a chamber through a battery of tests to see whether they can withstand high heat, paralyzing cold and other harsh conditions of the real world.

The machine is the main feature of Raytheon's large-scale automation factory, the newest part of the business' campus in Tucson, Arizona. By testing missile parts 30% faster than manual methods, it will help speed development of what Raytheon's Advanced Technology team calls "composable weapons" - a new approach the business is counting on to design, test, manufacture and deliver advanced effectors of all kinds, from ones that are large and complex to those that are simple and easy to produce in large numbers at the speed the military wants them.

The team believes the strategy will cut the development cycle from 10 years to as little as five for its most advanced designs.

"It used to be a 10-year development cycle for a new weapon. Now, that must get much shorter to be able to keep up with what our adversaries are doing," said Wayne Tiffin, Raytheon Advanced Technology's senior director of advanced hypersonic weapons. "How do I make it more capable, and then how do I do it on an accelerated timeline?"

The strategy taps into one of Raytheon's major strengths: Decades of data about what makes advanced munitions effective. Using that information, engineers have designed a standard set of parts that can be quickly modified and assembled to meet a mission's unique requirements.

Composability goes beyond hardware - it extends to testing and manufacturing as well. In Tucson, Raytheon has built several new facilities like the large-scale automation factory with automated, multipurpose capabilities that will streamline the process, so designs come to life with speed.

The advantage of composable weapons

Just behind the nose of a missile sits the guidance section - a tight cluster of electronics that process sensor data and fine-tune the weapon's course in real time.

It's not enough for a guidance section to be good. It also has to be compact to make more room for the missile's rocket motor. Balancing weight, power consumption and heat management makes the guidance section one of the most costly and time-consuming systems to design.

Historically, engineers would create a new guidance section from scratch for every new missile, but now Raytheon's Advanced Technology team is using a composable approach to shave years off development. They've built a common guidance section that relies on a proven, modular foundation that can be reused and modified based on the new missile's mission needs.

The common guidance section is just one of several building blocks the company has designed to support its composable approach, which lowers costs and accelerates the delivery of mission-ready, upgradeable weapons. They've also created composable kits for key subsystems including the control actuation system - which directs missile movement - power systems, and seekers to name a few.

"To be able to come in and see that we have a lot of these pieces of the puzzle already completed is exciting and invigorating," Tiffin said. "It allows us to move so much faster and really focus our energies where it matters the most, which is the new capability and the new elements of the system - not rehashing all those pieces that are always there."

All the composable weapons are derived from the same foundational software, too. The team built a library of reusable software modules that engineers can draw from when designing a new product. For example, when developing an air-to-air missile, a prebuilt module can immediately deliver roughly 80% of the required software functionality, freeing the team to focus on programming new, innovative features.

One of the team's first success stories was a radar simulation that could track targets at a highly realistic level. They produced it in a few months.

"It looked like five years' worth of work that we had crammed into three or four months," Tiffin said. "This was the first time that we were able to really start applying this strategy and bring it to the customers, and it's been a really powerful thing for us."

Investing in speed

Raytheon's Tucson campus is home to the AMRAAM® missile, the Tomahawk® cruise missile and many other munitions the military has trusted and relied on for decades. The Advanced Technology team is building on that legacy by designing next-generation effectors and making multimillion-dollar investments in new labs, factories and test equipment.

"Throughout Tucson, we're investing in new factories and new facilities with automation built in," said Ryan McCombs, Raytheon Advanced Technology's senior director of operations and supply chain. "Several of these facilities are from the ground up where we're able to co-locate everything together and put the latest test equipment and common practices all in one place so that we can go as fast as our customer needs us to."

Engineering the future of advanced weapons

For Tiffin, who joined Raytheon as an intern in 1999, the focus on composable weapons not only makes great engineering sense - it's also invigorating.

"When I started, every program was from scratch. Everything was unique and hard-wired," he said. "As an engineer, you're always on the quest for efficiency and optimization."

"This has been an exciting journey for us. I think that's why most of us come here every day. We really have a lot of passion for the work that we do, and we have a lot of passion for our warfighters - keeping them safe and giving them an unfair advantage in every fight."