Indian Head Innovation Enhances Safety of Sparrow Missiles
NAVSEA News Wire
Release Date: 6/6/2003
By Tara Sine Landis, NSWC Indian Head Division Public Affairs INDIAN HEAD, Md.-- Engineers in Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division's Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) Division have designed and proven successful an innovative alternative to traditional ultrasonic inspections of Sparrow rocket motors.
The Manual Ultrasonic Testing (MUT) device will increase the accuracy of anomaly detection, be easier to use, be more durable and safer, and lower costs.
Sparrow Missiles are radar-guided, air-to-air or surface-to-air missiles with high explosive warheads. First introduced in 1976, Sparrow missiles are equipped with Mk 58 solid rocket motors and are used by the Navy, Air Force, and foreign military sales (FMS) customers.
More than 10,000 Mk 58 rocket motors have been successfully fired and/or tested. In 1997, the first Sparrow flight failure was reported, with an additional four failures occurring between 1997 and 2001. In relation to the approximately 30,000 rocket motors in the field, five failures is an extremely low figure, but still significant enough to warrant concern. With earlier attempts to provide ultrasonic rocket motor testing capability unsuccessful, Indian Head was called on to develop a solution to this very critical issue.
Indian Head Division's MUT consists of off-the-shelf ultrasonic instrumentation combined with a specifically designed transducer. The rocket motor is scanned in three separate locations, at which time the transducer converts the electronic feedback into ultrasonic imagery. Data are then captured and recorded manually by the operator and analyzed for abnormalities. Each inspection takes about 15 minutes per motor. Gordon Hendrickson, manager of the Indian Head Division NDE Development Program, explained that in addition to significant cost savings, advantages of the division's manual unit include its portability, durability, and speed of testing.
MUT system qualification testing at Hill Air Force Base, field trials and training at Eglin Air Force Base and Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, and procedure manuals were completed in 2002. Since that time, energetics evaluation personnel have been extremely busy with inspection requests.
Several inspections were performed in the U.S. and overseas at locations including Yorktown, Guam, Singapore, Australia, Turkey, Germany, Greece, Egypt, and Hill and Tyndall Air Force Bases. The list will grow longer, as Naval Air Stations Fallon (Nevada) and Lemoore (Calif.), and Marine Corps Air Station El Cajon, Calif., as well as FMS customers in Kuwait, Canada, Jordan, Israel, and Portugal have requested support.
Also noteworthy is the fact that only ultrasonic engineers holding American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Level III certification can perform these inspections, with two certified engineers present for each assessment. Hendrickson commented that IHDIV is extremely fortunate to have onboard seven employees with ASNT Level III certification. "There is no other organization in government or industry that has close to this many inspectors," he said. "This shows the dedication and character of the employees working on this project."
More than 800 rocket motors have been inspected to date. When anomalies are found, theses units are set aside for additional engineering evaluation to confirm unit rejection.
Indian Head Division's MUT recently received Weapon System Explosive Safety Review Board approval to begin onboard ship testing. Discussing the benefits the warfighter and the Navy will realize, Hendrickson said, "The warfighters will have increased safety. They will know that when they fire a projectile it will work properly, and the Navy will have an additional capability that will add character and strength in carrying out its mission."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
