Northrop Grumman has recently completed a wind tunnel test campaign to validate the design of the future LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Sentinel is being developed for the US Air Force (USAF) to replace the five-decades-old Minuteman III ICBM.
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The test series involved the use of scaled models of the vehicle, which were stressed under sub-to-hypersonic environments, to evaluate and determine the design maturity of the weapon system.
Northrop Grumman said that wind tunnel testing is one of the crucial early steps in a particular missile development project. It allows developers to understand how the vehicle will work during a flight.
This wind tunnel test campaign was created by a team of engineers and involved a total of seven comprehensive trials to analyse and measure how the weapon system would perform under different atmospheric conditions, speeds and loads.
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Each test had its own separate set of requirements, with the eventual objective of simulating all the missile firing stages.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Northrop Grumman, the tests mimicked the firing and separation stages, as well as other flight manoeuvres.
Northrop Grumman Sentinel programme manager and vice-president Sarah Willoughby said: “Predictions from the modelling correlated with the testing results, giving us confidence in our model-based engineering approach.
“Data from these tests will inform future engineering decisions as we mature the design and continue on a path to deliver this critical capability to the USAF.”
Following the culmination of wind tunnel trials, the company is now working to update the models that can provide full-scale predictive conditions for the production of flight hardware of the Sentinel ICBM.
Willoughby added: “Tests were conducted at industry and government-run facilities across the US in under a year.”
