By Presley Price

From rockets that launch from below the sea, to ground, air and space-launched rockets, our customers rely on Northrop Grumman propulsion systems to conduct their most important missions.

Northrop Grumman has more than 70 years of experience providing high-performance and reliable propulsion systems to the aerospace and defense industries. Our solid rockets helped explore the boundaries of space in the 1950’s and land on the moon for the first time in 1969, while also pioneering the design and testing of hypersonic engines.

Today, Northrop Grumman continues to solve the industry’s most challenging problems with innovative solid and airbreathing solutions. In 2022, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, in partnership with Northrop Grumman were selected to develop the USAF’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) – a first-of-its-kind airbreathing hypersonic weapon. Northrop Grumman will produce the propulsion system enabling the missile at the Hypersonics Capability Center located on the Elkton, Maryland campus.

The facility is the first in the U.S. designed for large-scale manufacturing of air-breathing propulsion critical for powering hypersonic missiles beyond Mach 5 and will make affordable, high-rate production of hypersonic weapons a reality.