Lockheed Martin
is using 3D printing to help deliver a new multi-role delivery package in Common Multi-Mission Truck or CMMT, pronounced “COMET”. In conversation with Michael Rothstein, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of Air Weapons and Sensors, Missiles, and Fire Control; Simple Flying learned more about this futuristic delivery system.
CMMT not just a weapons truck
Below is a Lockheed Martin hype reel:
With that, CMMT was originally intended to be carried in transports like Lockheed Martin’s C-130J Hercules and launched out the back via “Rapid Dragon” pallets. These pallets would have a parachute to slow and stabilize the pallet so the CMMTs could fly out and do their business. As Rothstein shared in a Lockheed Martin media briefing leading up to Air & Space Forces Warfare Symposium,
“You really need to think about Comet as an air vehicle because from the get-go, this air vehicle was designed digital, designed modularly, designed with open architectures that will make it much easier for suppliers to plug and play their components.”
Why is that important? Rothstein stressed that CMMT is intended to be “scalable,” so…
“You can think shorter, longer versions. You can think different applications. You can think weapons, you can think drones, you can think sensors, right?”
Rothstein shared with Simple Flying that CMMT can also be modified to fit inside an F-35 weapons bay – especially as the low observable
F-35 just had its 1,000,000th flight hour
– and carried by other fighter jets. The plan is to make CMMT modular to meet the needs of the United States Air Force
, not just as a munition but also as a sensor platform. Yes, a sensor platform.
Sensor options
To Rothstein, any of the following sensors can go into the nose:
- Radar homing – which would be perfect for suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) or destruction of enemy air defenses (DEAD), both roles of Wild Weasel.
- IR/Infrared – which can seek out targets passively.
- Radar – which can seek out targets actively.
Plus, CMMT has places for sensors not just in the nose but topside and along the sides, as per Simple Flying’s photo of the model at AFA Warfare Symposium:
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying
CMMT can be used in many roles with this modularity and open systems architecture. Additionally, CMMT is intended to cost substantially less in money at the tune of $150,000 per round – as confirmed by the National Interest – and take time to produce than traditional decoys and missiles – such as Lockheed Martin’s $1.3 million Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile or JASSM and over $3.5 million AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) that take years to produce but has more capabilities, survivability and warhead vs. CMMT. There was also an order for more such missiles announced today:
Models of the two expensive missiles were mounted on a F-35 model below:
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying
As one can see, this increases the F-35’s radar signature versus CMMT, which can be carried internally. CMMT can also be launched from the ground or by helicopter in some modulations. This will allow CMMT packages to be deployable when and where necessary.
As such, CMMT is not just built but deployed at mass.
But 3-D printing/additive manufacturing not the whole solution…
While the structure is intended to be 3-D printed as part of an overall plan…
“So instead of this large place that you’re stuck in one place where you’re building munitions, then you got to figure logistically well, how do we aggregate the pieces and parts so they’re easily put together in some place, far away?”
With 3-d printing (aka additive manufacturing), it’s a matter of having the 3-d printers, necessary supporting parts, and assembers to connect the 3-d printed structural parts and sensors where one needs them. Rothstein did caution Simple Flying that,
“Realize when we talk about three, 3d printing weapons, you’re not likely to be printing the whole thing. Maybe we fast forward 30-40, years, but you’re not probably 3d printing a sensor going there,”
Rothstein did add that there will still need to be a supply chain for munitions, circuits, engines, and such. Such to the point that Lockheed Martin will test three different engines with CMMT later this year. Already there have been at least four live-fires in Rapid Dragon mode out the back of US Air Force transports.
Bottom line: Can CMMT be more than a drone?
CMMT, with its own propulsion system, can be more than a drone. Rorthstein was open to Simple Flying’s suggestion that
CMMT could serve as a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA)
by flying alongside a fighter jet as a modular tool. With its modularity and range of at least several hundred miles at high subsonic speeds, CMMT has much potential.
Graphic: Lockheed Martin
Here are some unofficial potential uses for CMMT:
- Long-range strike munition
- Long-range anti-radiation missile with a radar homing seeker, deployed internally from a F-35 weapons bay to minimize detection.
- Flying decoy to absorb missiles
- Long-range reconnaissance package
Graphic: Lockheed Martin
Ultimately, as Rothstein shared at the Lockheed Martin media event with some abridgement, for the last word:
“As we think about the future right, as we try to state out in front of the puck and go, … What do our war fighters need? … We understand that in a global conflict, and the kind of conflicts we’re going to have, maybe against a peer competitor, being able to get mass on targets is important, right?”
Having a Common Multi-Mission Truck that is easier on supply chains, uses open systems architecture, can use one of three jet engines, can carry a munition or do reconnaissance or be a decoy, and have most of its parts scalable and 3-d printed via additive manufacturing is getting mass on targets. Additionally the target $150,000 per CMMT price will allow for many CMMTs to fill hostile skies.
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