Advanced Photonix Begins Full Run on Missile Part

After two years of designs, prototypes, tests and long conversations between engineers, Advanced Photonix Inc. of Camarillo has begun a full-blown production run of detector fuse assemblies to be used on the Hughes corporation’s surface-to-air missiles.

Advanced Photonix last week received a $1.3-million order from the Hughes Missile Systems Co. in Tucson, Ariz., a major milestone in an ongoing relationship between the two companies.

Advanced Photonix, which designs and manufactures silicon-based photodetectors and other opto-electronic devices, delivered a much smaller volume of fuse assemblies in early 1996.

The assemblies, co-designed by Hughes and Advanced Photonix, are used on the Hughes rolling airframe missile, a surface-to-air missile used aboard ships to defend against incoming cruise missiles. Hughes is creating the RAM missile and its launcher for the U.S. Navy.

“From a revenue standpoint this is significant, and from the standpoint of bringing together Advanced Photonix and this customer it is significant,” said Harry Melkonian, president of Advanced Photonix.

“We’ve been a longtime supplier of a number of Hughes locations but this is new,” he said. “It’s significant because our relationship as a supplier to Hughes becomes further advanced.”

The optical fuses are mounted on the short-range, rotating RAM missile. A pulse laser signal locates the target and bounces a beam back. The detector assembly can detect the proximity of the target, providing constant data readings as the RAM moves toward the incoming missile.

“In essence, the RAM missile doesn’t need to hit the cruise missile,” Melkonian said. “It finds a proper location close enough to the missile and then it detonates and the explosion of the missile covers all angles.”

Melkonian said the ongoing work with Hughes should provide his company with consistent revenue for years to come.

“These programs have fairly long gestation, but generally when you get the final armament, the life of the program is significant,” he said. “When the RAM reaches commercialization, we should see a broadened impact.”