Fleet Ballistic Missile Eastern Range Operations ... - Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin
Space Systems Company
Test & Support Systems Engineering
Pier Road, Hanger Y
Mail Drop: MRL 156
Cape Canaveral AFB, FL 32920
321-476-7256
eastern.range.fbm@lmco.com
www.lockheedmartin.com
K7036
Fleet Ballistic Missile Eastern Range Operations
Supporting Navy Testing and Deployment

Partnering to Assure
Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM)
Reliability and Credibility
Cover: An unarmed Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile
emerges from the Eastern Range’s Atlantic waters in a Navy test
of reliability. With a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles, the
powerful missile features three-stage, solid-fuel propulsion,
inertial guidance and multiple independently targeted reentry
vehicles. Trident II-configured Ohio-class submarines carry the
D5 missiles, which were first deployed in 1990.
Photo courtesy of NASA
How does the Navy
assure the reliability and credibility
of its submarine-based
Fleet Ballistic Missiles (FBMs)?
One important way is through
test launches of the missiles in
the Atlantic Ocean on the Air
Force Eastern Range and in the
Pacific utilizing range assets
managed by the Naval Air
Systems Command, Point
Mugu, California.
For the vast test and
space launch arena known as
the Eastern Range, the Cape
Canaveral area in Florida serves
as the point of departure.
Submarines and surface ships
leave Port Canaveral to make
way to deep-sea test locations in
the range’s 10,000-mile stretch of
ocean. From land-based launch
pads at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station and Kennedy
Space Center, rockets propel
satellites, spacecraft and other
payloads through the range’s
15 million square miles of instrumented
airspace.
In the maritime provinces
of the range, the U.S. Navy conducts
FBM tests from Trident IIconfigured
Ohio-class submarines.
The test launches of these vital
strategic deterrents provide reliability
and accuracy performance
information to the Joint Chiefs
of Staff and the U.S. Strategic
Command, as part of ongoing
operational system evaluation.
For each test, missiles are randomly
selected and converted to
an unarmed test configuration,
and then launched from deployed
submarines under operationally
representative conditions.
Who partners with U.S.
Navy Strategic Systems Programs
personnel to support these tests
and other FBM operations at
the Eastern Range? The skilled
men and women of Lockheed
Martin Space Systems Company,
the Navy’s prime FBM strategic
missile system contractor and
missile system program manager
for more than 50 years.
The D5 missile’s superb record is a result of continual technical advances
under the exceptional leadership of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs.
The Navy’s rigorous testing program helps to ensure the reliability
and credibility of this critical national security asset.
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Providing Customer Support
with FBM Depth and Breadth
When the Navy tested the first FBM, the Polaris A1, at the
Eastern Range in the 1950s, Lockheed Martin was there. That close
partnership has continued through the testing of every generation of
FBM since then, including today’s Trident II D5. With the Trident II
D5, the Navy has achieved a record of reliability unmatched by any
other large ballistic missile – well over a hundred consecutive
successful test launches since 1989 in the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Lockheed Martin personnel
contribute technical and operational depth and
breadth in support of the Naval Ordnance Test Unit, the organization
within Navy Strategic Systems Programs that directs FBM
operations at the Eastern Range.
Dedicated to meeting the Navy’s goals and requirements,
more than 400 Lockheed Martin employees work on the FBM program
in more than 20 buildings at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station. Two of these buildings—one for engineering and analysis
and the other for missile research—make up the company’s newest
Eastern Range facility, the FBM Post-Production Center of
Excellence that opened in 2006.
Lockheed Martin talent includes engineers, technicians and
other specialists who aid the Navy in assembling, installing, testing
and repairing the missiles. Combining veteran employees with years
of experience and recent college graduates with fresh perspectives
forms a strong and effective team.
The full team of more than 2,600 Lockheed Martin FBM
employees is devoted to the Navy’s needs in six states—Florida,
California, Georgia, Washington, Utah and Virginia. Their work
encompasses every aspect of the Trident II D5 strategic
weapon system, from design to development to production to
testing to operation. Their guiding philosophy remains “We never
forget who we’re working for ® .”
The close partnership between the Navy and
Lockheed Martin has continued through every
FBM generation—from the 1950s’ Polaris A1
to today’s Trident II D5.
A technician tests a new handling tool designed by
Eastern Range support equipment engineers to automate
installation of the D5 nose cap snubber during missile
assembly at the Strategic Weapons Facility, Atlantic
(SWFLANT).
Naval Ordnance Test Unit:
Directing FBM Eastern
Range Operations
The Naval Ordnance Test Unit, a
major field activity of U.S. Navy Strategic
Systems Programs, directs all FBM operations
at the Eastern Range.
This unit oversees and performs test,
launch and evaluation of the missile system
during development. The unit plays an integral
role in supporting FBM demonstration
and shakedown operations, commander
evaluation tests and follow-on commander
evaluation tests of the system. And, for flight
test vehicles, the unit supports tracking,
telemetry and range safety equipment.
The many “firsts” the Naval
Ordnance Test Unit has supported include
the first Polaris missile launch from a surface
ship off the coast of Florida in 1959 and
the first from a submarine in 1960. The unit
later supported the Poseidon C3, Trident I
C4 and Trident II D5 development and
operational evaluation test flight programs.
Since the 1950s, the unit has had a
presence at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station. Headquarters for the Naval
Ordnance Test Unit were officially relocated
to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 1977.
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Delivering a Full Range of FBM Expertise and Service
In the course of supporting
the Navy in assembly, installation,
testing, repair and operation of the
missiles, Lockheed Martin provides
an array of specialized services at
the Eastern Range. These services
include the following:
Development and Operational
Evaluation Tests. Lockheed
Martin Eastern Range personnel
support in-tube conversions of
FBMs—from tactical to test configuration
at Naval Submarine
Base Kings Bay—for performance
Photo courtesy of NASA
D5 experimental vehicle one
(D5X-1) lifts off from the launch
pad at Complex 46A at Cape
Canaveral, Florida, in 1987. The
vehicle flew down the Eastern
Range to an impact area in the
south Atlantic Ocean, fulfilling a
commitment made to the nation
when the Secretary of Defense
approved the Trident II D5
development program in 1981.
evaluation missile tests, demonstration
and shakedown operations,
commander evaluation tests and
follow-on commander evaluation
tests conducted from FBM submarines
(SSBNs). Lockheed
Martin personnel also provide
industrial and administrative support
to visiting submarine crews.
Test Missile Instrumentation Kit
Production. Trident II D5 test
missile kits convert operational
missiles to a test configuration
and provide range safety controls
plus telemetry instrumentation.
Kit processing takes place in a
specially designed facility within
the Missile Assembly and Checkout
Area.
Surface Support Equipment
Design, Production and
Proofing. The Support Equipment
Area in Complex 30 and the
Missile Assembly and Checkout
Area, located in the Mechanical
Equipment Support Systems Area,
Lockheed Martin
provides an array of
specialized services to
support the Navy’s needs
at the Eastern Range.
proof new designs and design
alterations for electrical and
mechanical support equipment.
They also provide problem identification
and solution analysis.
Deployed System Support. FBM
deployed system activities include
program management; logistics,
facility and field engineering;
information technology; finance
and business operations; technical
publications and information
systems.
Logistics Support. Functions at
Port Canaveral include the Data
Acquisition and Reduction Center,
which provides reduction of flight
and ground test data; a test
equipment laboratory; a type III
certified calibration laboratory;
and administration services
(stockrooms, reproduction, mail
and fleet transportation, finance,
payroll, human resources, security,
and environmental, safety
and hazardous engineering).
Test reentry bodies streak toward
their targets in the Atlantic Ocean
near Ascension Island at the far
end of the Eastern Range.
Shop Services. Lockheed Martin’s
machine shop and electrical labs
feature a quick prototype capability
to simulate almost any activity
that occurs in the field or fleet.
They build prototype hardware
and one-of-a kind items, perform
electrical failure detection and
analysis, and support rework of
surface support equipment. They
also investigate and resolve field
and fleet-related support equipment
anomalies, and support missile and
missile component problem
investigations.
Documentation Development.
Technical experts review change
documents, update instructions
for missile processing and support
equipment maintenance, and
support design change implementation,
hardware proofing,
modification kit assembly and
documentation release.
FBM Eastern Range personnel install
a new air conditioner on the Trident
II D5 Service Unit. The Service Unit,
a movable structure, is used at
Strategic Weapons Facilities during
conversion of a tactical missile to a
test missile.
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Fleet Support. The Mechanical
Equipment Support Systems Area
complex maintains space and
equipment for evaluating, testing
and demonstrating equipment for
all program phases. These include
proofing of proposed weapon systems
alterations, slow-run-through
evaluations and personnel familiarization
for reentry and missile
body/in-tube conversion operations.
Failure Analysis. Post-Production
Center of Excellence personnel
submit Navy fleet-returned items
to labs located on the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
complex for failure
analysis and determination of root
cause for metallic and non-metallic
objects.
Administration. Lockheed
Martin develops and administers
systems and procedures for personnel
and property security,
property accountability, control
of expenditures, procurement of
supplies and materials, property
and equipment maintenance and
documentation. Lockheed Martin
also provides maintenance and
repair of government property
and materiel services for FBM
associate contractors.
Eastern Range technicians evaluate
a new thermal relief valve design on
an active inert missile in the
Mechanical Equipment Support
Systems Area in the Missile Assembly
and Checkout Area.
The 45th Space Wing:
Operating the
Eastern Range as
a National Asset
The 45th Space Wing of
the U.S. Air Force Space
Command operates and maintains
the Eastern Range, a
national asset used by numerous
military and government agencies.
With headquarters at
Patrick Air Force Base, Florida,
the wing supports military, civil
and commercial space launch
missions, as well as submarinelaunched
ballistic missile tests
and evaluations.
The wing and its contractors
work with the many
organizations involved in launch
and range operations. These
include the U.S. Navy, National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration, National
Reconnaissance Office and the
Air Force Space and Missile
Systems Center.
The lineage of today’s
45th Space Wing dates to the
Air Force Division of the Joint
Long Range Proving Ground,
an Air Force-Army-Navy
organization established in
1949 to manage missile testing
and launch operations on the
range. By l956, nine tracking sites
and the first 1,000 miles of the
Eastern Range were in operation.
By 1963, the range had stretched
10,000 miles from the Florida
mainland through the South
Atlantic and around the
Southern tip of Africa to the
Indian Ocean.
Lockheed Martin Eastern Range workers install the
S-band Mobile Array Telemetry (SMART) antenna system
on board the USS Pathfinder, an FBM test range support
ship, at Port Canaveral.
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Dedicated to meeting Navy mission requirements, Lockheed Martin
employees working at the Eastern Range provide Trident II D5 FBM deployed
systems support, including program management, logistics, facility and field
engineering, and business support functions.