The team filled the seven warheads using a 150-gallon mixer that has been in service for decades. A new 300-gallon mixer at the rebuilt Motor Assembly Compound is expected to come online around June 2027, allowing the team to reach its planned production rate.
The Navy awarded Raytheon a $22.9 billion contract in August to speed up Tomahawk production. China Lake aims to have warheads ready before Raytheon needs them so missile deliveries to the fleet stay on schedule.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems machines the warhead cases, and L3Harris fills them with explosives. NAWCWD plans to make a share of the warheads under a multiyear public-private partnership it signed with L3Harris in September, said Ryan Hunter, head of NAWCWD’s Propulsion and Energetics Division.
“At PAE Munitions, we know that increasing weapons production takes more than contracts and funding,” said Rear Adm. Eric Gardner, principal deputy for the Portfolio Acquisition Executive Munitions. “It takes people, infrastructure, materials, and strong partnerships across our Navy, our warfare centers and industry.”
Some components and materials can take up to a year to arrive, so NAWCWD bought long-lead materials ahead of the multiyear contract. Patricia Hottowe, who leads NAWCWD’s Tomahawk Technical Project Office, said the team spent much of the past year updating the warhead specification and the approved supplier list.
More than a dozen new hires are joining the team and will spend about a year training under experienced technicians before working on their own, Goedert said. Hunter said the plant’s layout would also help increase output by allowing crews to cast and cure warheads in separate areas at the same time.
