Italy’s Avio expands to fill US Army solid rocket motor orders

ROME — Italy’s biggest rocket and missile motor manufacturer, Avio, is set to triple production within five years as the American military and industry look to it to ease a chronic production shortfall in the United States, the firm’s CEO has said.

In July, Avio signed with Raytheon to develop “critical solid rocket motors for defense applications,” as well as partnering with the U.S. Army “for the development and fast-prototyping of a solid rocket motor for surface-to-air applications.”

The demand in the U.S. for Avio’s wares and know-how reflects the demand for rocket motors driven by conflicts around the world as well as a narrowing in supply options following the 2018 purchase of Orbital ATK by Northrop Grumman.

Avio is working on opening a U.S. production site, but will start out by working on its new American workload at its Colleferro site in Italy.

“Today we manufacture 200-300 rocket motors a year at Colleferro and can triple that in 4-5 years on present commitments,” Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo told Defense News.

Avio already works on the propulsion and other components for the Aster 30 missile, as well as solid-propellant rocket motor of the new CAMM-ER air defense missile, while its core business is space, putting 120 satellites into orbit in the last 12 years thanks to 24 launches of its Vega launcher.

Ranzo said approximately two more years would be needed for Avio to qualify Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) products at its Colleferro site as per recent U.S. contracts. The approach would however be faster and safer than waiting for the new facility in the U.S. to start its qualification phase ahead of volume manufacturing, he added.

“U.S. officials have said production in the U.S. would be the ideal, but they understand that takes time. Establishing new capacity cannot be done in months,” he said.

“There are plenty of startups trying to enter this market, but this requires decades of experience in production at scale and a large and authorized site to handle explosives” he added.

Few details have emerged about the two U.S. deals, but Ranzo said, “We have just worked on the new CAMM-ER missile which means we have fresh technical knowledge. Most equivalent systems in the U.S. date to the 1980s.”

Avio set up a U.S. subsidiary, Avio USA, in 2022, appointing as CEO James Syring, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral and former director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Syring told Defense News, “There has been a consolidation of the industrial base, essentially leaving Northrop Grumman and Aerojet as the sole SRM manufacturers, but even before that there has been a longstanding capacity shortfall for the production of rocket motors and missiles vs current demand.”

He added, “This is not a new thing. You talk to customers and prime contractors and they say they would order double if they could. The ongoing conflicts have exacerbated the situation.”

Syring said the company’s expansion aims to top up lagging U.S. production capacity as opposed to capturing market share there.

“We hear ‘Buy American’ a lot, and that is why we are working to establish by a sizeable U.S. factory presence to serve all customers,” Syring said.

He added, “The Department of Defense has been vocal about the need to leverage international production capabilities, given the maxed out supply base. The DoD has been supportive of us getting established.”

As well as capacity, Avio also offered innovations, according to Syring. “Avio has innovative technology and capabilities for booster cases, thermal protections and nozzle manufacturing that no U.S. rocket motor supplier has.”

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——意大利最大的火箭和导弹发动机制造商Avio的首席执行官表示，该公司计划在五年内将产量提高两倍，因为美国军方和工业界希望它能缓解美国长期存在的生产短缺问题。

7 月，Avio 与雷神公司签约，共同开发“用于国防应用的关键固体火箭发动机”，并与美国陆军合作，“开发和快速制造用于地对空应用的固体火箭发动机原型”。

美国对 Avio 的产品和技术的需求反映了世界各地冲突推动的火箭发动机需求，以及诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司在 2018 年收购 Orbital ATK 后供应选择的减少。

Avio 正在筹建美国生产基地，但会先在其位于意大利科莱费罗的工厂处理其在美国的新业务。

“目前我们在科莱费罗每年生产 200-300 台火箭发动机，按照目前的承诺，4-5 年内可以将其产量提高三倍，”Avio 首席执行官朱利奥·兰佐告诉《防务新闻》。

Avio 已经为 Aster 30 导弹研发推进系统和其他部件，并为新型 CAMM-ER 防空导弹研发固体推进剂火箭发动机，而其核心业务是太空，在过去 12 年中，凭借其 Vega 运载火箭的 24 次发射，已将 120 颗卫星送入轨道。

兰佐表示，根据最近签订的美国合同，Avio公司位于科莱费罗的工厂还需要大约两年时间才能完成固体火箭发动机（SRM）产品的认证。但他补充说，这种方法比等待美国新工厂在批量生产前完成认证阶段要更快、更安全。

他说：“美国官员表示，在美国本土生产是理想之选，但他们也明白这需要时间。建立新的产能不可能在几个月内完成。”

“有很多初创公司试图进入这个市场，但这需要数十年的大规模生产经验，以及一个大型且获得授权的爆炸物处理场所，”他补充道。

关于这两笔美国交易的细节很少，但兰佐表示：“我们刚刚完成了新型CAMM-ER导弹的研发，这意味着我们拥有最新的技术知识。美国的大多数同类系统可以追溯到20世纪80年代。”

2022 年，Avio 成立了美国子公司 Avio USA，并任命美国海军退役中将、美国导弹防御局前局长 James Syring 为首席执行官。

Syring告诉《防务新闻》：“工业基础已经整合，基本上只剩下诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司和Aerojet公司两家SRM制造商，但即便在此之前，火箭发动机和导弹的生产能力也长期低于当前的需求。”

他补充道：“这并非新鲜事。你去问问客户和总承包商，他们都说如果可以的话，他们会订购双倍的量。持续不断的冲突加剧了这种情况。”

Syring表示，公司此次扩张旨在补充美国产能不足的问题，而不是为了抢占美国市场份额。

“我们经常听到‘购买美国货’的口号，因此我们正在努力在美国建立规模可观的工厂，以服务所有客户，”赛林说。

他补充道：“鉴于供应链已达到极限，国防部一直强调需要利用国际生产能力。国防部也一直支持我们建立自己的生产基地。”

据赛林称，除了产能之外，Avio 还提供了创新技术。“Avio 在助推器壳体、热防护和喷嘴制造方面拥有美国任何火箭发动机供应商都不具备的创新技术和能力。”

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。