Lockheed Martin Area, Titusville, Florida, is awarded a $70,123,973 fixed-price-incentive, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to train choices below a beforehand awarded contract for TRIDENT II (D5) missile manufacturing and deployed methods assist. Work is predicted to be accomplished Sept. 30, 2026. The UGM-133A Trident II, or Trident D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), constructed by Lockheed Martin Area in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the American and British navies.Fiscal 2021 weapons procurement (Navy) funds within the quantity of $4,300,336; and monetary 2022 weapons procurement (Navy) funds within the quantity of $65,823,637 can be obligated on this award, none of which can expire on the finish of the present fiscal 12 months. Strategic Techniques Applications, Washington, D.C., is the contracting exercise.
The Trident D5 was first deployed in March 1990, and stays in service. The Trident II Strategic Weapons System is an improved SLBM with better accuracy, payload, and vary than the sooner Trident C-4. It’s a key factor of the U.S. strategic nuclear triad and strengthens U.S. strategic deterrence. The Trident II is taken into account to be a sturdy sea-based system able to participating many targets. It enhances the U.S. place in strategic arms negotiation with efficiency and payload flexibility that may accommodate lively treaty initiatives. The Trident II’s elevated payload permits nuclear deterrence to be achieved with fewer submarines, and its excessive accuracy—approaching that of land-based missiles—permits it for use as a primary strike weapon.
Commercial
Trident II missiles are carried by 14 US Ohio and 4 British Vanguard-class submarines, with 24 missiles on every Ohio class and 16 missiles on every Vanguard class (the variety of missiles on Ohio-class submarines can be decreased to twenty every beginning in 2023, in compliance with the New Strategic Arms Discount Treaty). There have been 177 profitable take a look at flights of the D5 missile since design completion in 1989,[21] the newest being from USS Maine (SSBN-741) in February 2020. There have been fewer than 10 take a look at flights that have been failures, the newest being from HMS Vengeance off the coast of Florida in June 2016. The D5 is the sixth in a sequence of missile generations deployed for the reason that sea-based deterrent program started 60 years in the past. The Trident D5LE (life-extension) model will stay in service till 2042.
The Trident II is a three-stage rocket, every stage containing a solid-fuel rocket motor. The primary motor is made by Northrop Grumman. This primary stage incorporates a stable propellant motor, components to make sure first-stage ignition, and a thrust vector management (TVC) system. The primary-stage part, in comparison with the Trident C-4, is barely bigger, permitting elevated vary and a bigger payload. Along with a bigger motor, the D-5 makes use of a complicated and lighter gas binder (polyethylene glycol) than the C-4. This gas is extra generally often known as NEPE-75. (NEPE stands for nitrate ester plasticized polyether, the 75 represents that the gas accommodates 75% solids.) The stable elements certain by gas binder are HMX, aluminum, and ammonium perchlorate. Each the first- and second-stage motors are linked by an interstage casing, which accommodates digital tools and ordnance for separation throughout flight. The second stage additionally accommodates a motor made by Thiokol and Hercules Inc., components to make sure the second-stage ignition, and a TVC system.
