The hypersonic supply chain: Discussing scale and affordability of TPS systems at the Hypersonic Weapons Summit

The hypersonic supply chain: Discussing scale and affordability of TPS systems at the Hypersonic Weapons Summit

A Q&A session with Mark Miklos, vice president and general manager, at Spirit AeroSystems

Hypersonics remain one of the Defense Department's highest technical modernization priorities - with the annual spend expected to grow to $5 billion by 2025. This anticipated growth puts the spotlight on the industrial base to put a plan in place to produce at scale.

At the recent IDGA Hypersonic Weapons Summit, Mark Miklos presented on how Spirit is leveraging its commercial experience and applying best practices for industrialization, risk-reduction and design for manufacturability/affordability to the hypersonic industry. And now we get to dive deeper as he answers your (attendees) questions about the hypersonic supply chain and manufacturing process.

Do you see any issues with raw materials, such as fibers?

No. As one of the largest users of carbon fibers in the world, we do not see an immediate issue with the fiber supply. Spirit tends to focus on using sustainable fibers in our design specifications.

However, it would be naive to think that supply challenges do not present a risk. Spirit employs a proactive process to manage its supply chain, including only sourcing from long-term sustainable suppliers and proactively addressing any potential challenges in advance of a supply disruption.

The high-temperature materials used for the thermal protection systems make up a significant portion of the cost of a hypersonic vehicle. How do you see the affordability of these materials going forward?

Hypersonic TPS materials have only been produced to support small volume prototype builds. As build quantities increase, we see a significant opportunity to industrialize the production of hypersonic TPS components and systems, which will significantly impact the affordability.

Partnering on design for manufacturability is the key for government agencies looking to increase affordability. By applying the same practices as commercial aerostructures production to the development of these new hypersonic programs, producing thousands of hypersonic weapons is within reach.

Can you discuss levels of IR&D and CR&D at Spirit?

Spirit is committed to funding technological advancements with continual investments in R&D. Last year, Spirit AeroSystems invested approximately $54.5M in R&D. A significant percentage of that investment went into technologies focused on delivering hypersonic solutions.

With the addition of Fiber Materials Inc. to Spirit's portfolio, we have placed greater focus on high-temperature composite innovation, including processing technology to drive scale and affordability.

Can you integrate supply chain security into this enhanced digitize approach, using, for example, block-chain integrity?

Spirit is currently focused on meeting the appropriate Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) guidelines. The use of layered secure computing, with block-chain integrity as a possible solution, is being evaluated as we extend our digital environment to include our supply base.

How much focus is being placed on the refinement of an integrated digital environment?

We are currently redefining our digital environment to improve cost, quality and time-to-market. We have made substantial progress integrating digital technologies into our manufacturing processes. For instance, our new Global Digital Logistics Center enables us to efficiently receive, sort, store, track, kit and deliver parts to the assembly line by using digital engineering simulation tools and procedures.

We plan to further refine our operations by implementing digital twin technologies and a single source of data to achieve even greater visibility across the supply chain.

There is much focus on building the industrial base to support the nation's hypersonic needs. How do you see your ability to scale to production volumes?

We are confident in Spirit's existing abilities, but there is still work to do that will require government, university and industry collaboration.

Our confidence in our ability today comes from Spirit being uniquely qualified to manage the scale-up and production of hypersonic composite aerostructure solutions.

Spirit is known for our ability to industrialize large, complex aerostructures. We are the largest Tier 1 aerostructures company in the world, with over 90 years of know-how producing critical aerostructures. And we are a world leader in composite aerostructure production.

Fiber Materials Incorporated, now a part of Spirit AeroSystems is a pioneer in the high-temperature composite material solutions market and has supported strategic DoD programs in production. This has given Spirit the experience and expertise required to help scale production.

The work that needs to be prioritized within the broader defense ecosystem pertains to workforce investments to support industrialization at all levels. The more the DoD and industry can invest in applied projects with universities, the more we will get students focused on the skill sets to support this niche market. The DoD has made some nice first steps in standing up University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics, but we're all going to need to come together in a way that's never been done before if we expect the workforce development to keep up with industry demand and speed. In order to scale a hypersonic weapons program in the near future, the workforce development effort needs to be prioritized yesterday. We're confident we can get there by reimagining how government, universities and industry have collaborated in the past.

Learn more about our innovations in hypersonics and defense here.