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CT for defenseInspect your critical components without destroying them

CT for defenseInspect your critical components without destroying them

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Guarantee zero defects

Industrial CT is a non-destructive testing method that lets you inspect 100% of the inside of a defense component without destroying it, and reveal the internal defects (porosity, cracks, inclusions, delamination…) that traditional methods miss.

Access the invisible

Where 2D radiography reaches its limits (composites, metal additive manufacturing, multi-material assemblies, energetic charges, miniaturized electronics), industrial CT provides a decisive three-dimensional answer. Every inspection produces traceable, auditable 3D data that can be used throughout the life cycle: from development to production, and through to in-service support (MRO).
câble endommagé Défense_vue en tomographie RX Solutions

Confidentiality & sovereignty

Performed in-house, CT inspection lets no sensitive data leave your controlled environment: confidentiality and sovereignty are preserved. You get a precise, quantified diagnosis so you can decide quickly (OK / NOK) and secure your critical components with confidence.
Discover our CT systems: micro-CT, nano-CT, high-energy CT, custom-made.
Why use CT in defense?

CT, a major asset for defense

In defense, a single undetected internal defect can compromise a mission, endanger a crew and ground strategic equipment. A porosity in a turbine blade, a crack in a propellant charge or an inclusion in a structural part can be enough to cause a failure with irreversible consequences. That is the requirement that shapes the whole sector: on critical components, tolerance is zero. What’s needed is a method that can see what hides inside the material, where the most dangerous defects lurk and where conventional inspections stop.

CT lets you see inside your parts without destroying them.
sHow CT works (diagram)
How CT works

CT, a technology suited to complex geometries

2D radiography projects a volume onto a flat image: details overlap, internal defects mask one another and complex geometries become harder to read. On modern parts with optimized shapes, thin walls or internal cavities, this projection quickly reaches its limits. Industrial CT removes that constraint by reconstructing a complete volumetric model, inspectable from every angle and through every layer, in which each defect is precisely located in all three dimensions.
électronique micro CT RX Solutions

Materials and assemblies that are ever harder to inspect

Today’s defense systems push materials to their limits. Each material family creates inspection challenges that only volumetric inspection such as CT can meet:
  • Composites (CFRP / CFRTP): delaminations and internal porosity invisible to 2D radiography.
  • Metal additive manufacturing: internal channels, porosity and lack-of-fusion defects that can’t be validated without CT.
  • Multi-material assemblies: interfaces between dissimilar materials that no other method can inspect without disassembly.
  • Energetic materials: voids and internal discontinuities that are critical to ballistic safety.
  • Miniaturized electronics: sub-millimeter interconnects that demand micro-CT resolution.
What industrial CT lets you inspect

Get access to the whole part

Industrial CT gives access to the entire component (surface, walls, cavities, assemblies) without ever altering it. Where conventional methods force you to choose between inspecting and preserving, CT removes that trade-off: you inspect what you could neither reach nor measure before, through three complementary capabilities.


Contrôle qualité tomographie - aeronautique

A complete internal inspection, in 3D

A single scan is enough to inspect the whole component, without reopening or repositioning it.
Longitudinal section, cross-section view, isolated region of interest, switching from the surface rendering to the inside of the assembly: everything is explored on screen, from a single acquisition. CT reveals what other methods can’t see: interfaces between materials, buried cavities, micro-defects and discontinuities deep within the material.
From the large dense part to the sub-millimeter detail, the choice of source (micro-CT to nano-CT) matches the level of analysis to the criticality of the component. Where conventional inspection chains successive cuts and measurements, CT brings everything together in a single analysis, which can be re-examined as many times as needed without ever handling the part again.
Contrôle qualité tomographie - aeronautique

Non-destructive inspection of the part

CT inspects 100% of the inside of a component without cutting it: the part stays intact and fully usable after inspection. No more sectioning and sample preparation: that is time, cost and sacrificed parts saved. Above all, it makes it possible to inspect components that are already assembled and geometries that couldn’t be opened without destroying them, with results that are repeatable from one part to the next.
cycle de vie produit application tomographie RX Solutions
CT throughout the life cycle

Control risks, guarantee reliability

In the defense sector, risk control and component reliability aren’t limited to a single stage of the industrial process. Industrial CT accompanies your parts and components at every stage of a product’s life, from the first prototype to parts in service, and even beyond, in failure analysis.
One technology secures technical decisions at three moments when the stakes and the stakeholders change: speeding up development, making production more reliable and understanding in-service failures.

In development: qualify faster, protect what matters

During development, engineers and researchers often use several inspection methods. Even so, they see validation phases get longer and sometimes have to entrust strategic parts to outside providers.

From the design and validation phases onward, CT lets you:
  • analyze internal structures from the first prototypes;
  • validate design and material choices;
  • speed up qualification phases by reducing uncertainty.

CT provides a detailed understanding of internal phenomena and failure mechanisms, while limiting the need for destructive testing.

In production: decide in-house, let nothing through

In production, the risk shifts: an internal defect that goes unnoticed means scrap, or even a failure in the field. And outsourced inspection slows down throughput.CT catches these hidden defects before they propagate and reduces scrap and in-service failures accordingly.

Traceable, repeatable data secure quality and compliance, while automated workflows reduce dependence on experts. The OK / NOK decision is made in-house, without delay.

In the industrial phase, CT becomes a central tool to:
  • detect invisible internal defects (porosity, cracks, inclusions);
  • guarantee that parts comply with defense requirements;
  • automate inspections and make decisions more reliable.

In-service support and MRO: understand the failure, justify the decision

In service, the question is no longer how to produce but what to do with a part already in use: return it to service or scrap it. Before any return to service, CT verifies the structural integrity of a worn component without destroying it.

In the event of a failure, CT speeds up root-cause analysis, meaning less investigation time and less downtime.

Typical defense applications

From the turbine blade to the missile assembly, by way of personal protective equipment, every critical defense component shares the same requirement: zero defects, to guarantee operational availability, crew safety and mission success, while meeting the specific constraints of each domain: advanced materials, multi-material assemblies, complex geometries or extreme operating conditions.

Industrial CT applies to all the main families of Defense components: air, weapons, protection, electronics, additive manufacturing, energetics. For each, here are examples of the defects sought and the parts concerned.
Aerospace: turbine blades and composite structures
Aerospace: turbine blades and composite structures
Weapons: ammunition, warheads and fuzes
Weapons: ammunition, warheads and fuzes
Protective equipment: ballistic plates, vests and helmets
Protective equipment: ballistic plates, vests and helmets
Electronics and batteries
Electronics and batteries
Additive manufacturing: powders, parts and CAD comparison
Additive manufacturing: powders, parts and CAD comparison
Explosives & energetics: charges, detonators and pyrotechnic cables
Explosives & energetics: charges, detonators and pyrotechnic cables
Aerospace: turbine blades and composite structures
In aerospace applications, CT applies to both cast parts and composite structures: the most dangerous defects there are internal and therefore invisible from the surface. CT can inspect dense superalloys as well as composite materials such as carbon fiber, to validate component integrity before they enter service under operational conditions.

  • Defects sought: Castings / blades: porosity, inclusions, blocked cooling channels. Composites: delaminations, impact damage, bonding defects.
  • Example parts: Blades, superalloys, casings; helicopter parts, rotors, carbon fiber.

These analyses are essential to guarantee the structural reliability and safety of equipment under operational conditions.
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Weapons: ammunition, warheads and fuzes
Propellant homogeneity, shot pellet count, thread integrity, component positioning: on a munition or a warhead, conformity depends on internal parameters that industrial CT can quantify in a single scan.

  • Defects sought: Ammunition: internal defects, propellant homogeneity, pellet count and arrangement. Warheads and fuzes: verification of internal assembly, thread integrity, component positioning.
  • Example parts: bullets, cartridges, cartridge cases; warhead bodies, fuze mechanisms, explosive cavities.

These inspections ensure the reliability and operating safety of weapon systems, from firing to impact.
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Protective equipment: ballistic plates, vests and helmets
An armor’s performance is decided in its internal structure: a delamination, a thickness variation or a porosity can be enough to compromise its impact resistance. CT maps these defects on multilayer materials that are hard to inspect any other way.

  • Defects sought: delaminations, impact damage, fractures, embedment, porosity, thickness deviations.
  • Example parts: ballistic plates, bullet-resistant vests, hard armor inserts, helmets.

These inspections help guarantee equipment performance and user safety under real conditions of use.
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Electronics and batteries
Solder joints, voids in solder, component alignment, electrode stacking: in defense electronics, conformity is decided at the sub-millimeter scale. Micro-CT measures these parameters inside components and detects internal defects that can lead to a short circuit or thermal runaway.

  • Defects sought: PCBs & components: solder joint defects, delamination, voiding, component misalignment. Batteries & energy storage: electrode folding defects, internal short circuit, electrolyte leakage, separator damage.
  • Example parts: PCBs, chipsets, integrated circuits, connectors; Li-ion cells, battery packs, capacitors, power modules.
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Additive manufacturing: powders, parts and CAD comparison
Still recent in the defense industry, additive manufacturing is gradually becoming established for producing highly complex parts. But its new geometries (lattice structures, internal channels, multi-material) can no longer be inspected effectively with traditional methods. On top of this comes a twofold uncertainty specific to the process: the quality of the input powder and the integrity of the output part.

CT addresses both. At the nanometer scale, it characterizes the powder (particle size, shape, porosity); on the final part, it detects manufacturing defects; and by registration with the model, it measures the deviation between the real part and the CAD.

  • Defects sought: Powder analysis: particle size distribution, pore properties, porosity quantification, powder shape and distribution. Printed parts: internal porosity, cracking, wall thickness deviation, support residues.
  • Example parts: Powders and components in titanium, aluminum, Inconel; turbine parts, structural brackets, lattice structures.
  • Associated capability: 3D comparison of real part vs. CAD and measurement of dimensional deviation.

These analyses secure the additive chain, from raw material to qualification of the final part.
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Explosives & energetics: charges, detonators and pyrotechnic cables
On an energetic material, internal inspection is first of all a safety matter: a void in a charge, a misaligned initiator or a density discontinuity can alter ballistic behavior and the stability of the whole. Industrial CT inspects propellant charges, pyrotechnic chains and ignition systems without destructive stress, and also enables failure analysis after an incident, on a burnt pyrotechnic cable for example.

  • Defects sought: Charges & powders: porosity, inclusions, discontinuities, density anomalies. Detonators & pyrotechnics: propellant voids, misaligned initiators, wiring integrity, verification of internal assembly.
  • Example parts: solid propellants, explosive powders, pyrotechnic charges; detonators, pyrotechnic cables, ignition lines, ignition systems.

CT analyses help secure the behavior of energetic materials, prevent critical failures and guarantee the reliability of systems under operational conditions.
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For your defense application 

Which RX Solutions CT system?


In the defense sector, each application has specific requirements for resolution, power, part size or integration into an industrial environment; analyzing powder for additive manufacturing has nothing to do with the penetration needed for a dense shell. The choice of an industrial CT system must therefore be guided by technical constraints and operational objectives.

RX Solutions structures its offer around three complementary ranges and two series, to cover the whole spectrum: from sub-micron to high energy, from the R&D lab to production inspection. If your needs don’t fit our lines, a custom-made CT project will meet your applications.
tomographe fabrication RX Solutions FAB series

Dimensional measurement and production

Two series then let you adapt the CT system to your environment: the FAB Series for robustness and automation in production (24/7, Industry 4.0), and the Metrology Series for certified dimensional metrology (compliant with VDI/VDE and ASME B89.4.23).
FAB Series   Metrology Series

Special CT projects

Defense requirements that go beyond the standard?

When an application falls outside standard configurations, RX Solutions designs the system with you, from specification to delivery, in a confidential environment and under NDA. 
Twenty years of building CT systems let us push the limits of size, energy and architecture:
  • Large and very large parts: high energy and large volumes (up to several hundred kg, scan height in meters) for propulsion, large-caliber rounds or armor panels;
  • Mobile systems: CT system designed for transport and use in harsh conditions;
  • Simultaneous dual energy / dual acquisition: for material discrimination and in-situ monitoring (ballistic tests, large parts);
  • Production systems: designed for harsh industrial environments and high-throughput automated inspection.

Discover our custom-made projects
Most 3D inspection needs can be covered by a standard or modular system. But some projects involve one or more constraints that fall outside that framework: unusual dimensions, dense material, throughput constraints, demanding environment, etc.

Requirement / ApplicationOur technical answer
A part too large or too heavy for the scan envelope of a standard CT system (height, diameter, weight)Custom-sized scan envelopes, rotation stages and mechanical structures
A dense material or large volume requiring energy and resolution combined beyond conventional configurationsNanofocus, microfocus or mesofocus sources, from 110 kV to 450 kV, combined according to the desired resolution/penetration trade-off
A harsh production environment: high temperature, humidity, continuous throughput, water cleaningReinforced structures and temperature control suited to continuous production use
An outdoor or extreme environment: very low temperature, remote operation, off-road transportThermal control and reinforced structures for transport or use in extreme conditions
The need to combine two imaging modalities (X-ray and neutrons, or CT and X-ray diffraction) on a single instrumentCoupling of two imaging techniques on a single instrument
Specific software integration: barcode reading, traceability by part number, automated control of an inspection line
Custom control interfaces (API, automatic measurement macros), integration of industrial protocols
A need for fine resolution or material discrimination
Flat panel, line-scan detectors, photon-counting detectors, sCMOS camera, alone or combined

Why entrust your defense project to RX Solutions?

A defense project isn’t entrusted to just any supplier: it demands confidentiality, continuity and long-term expertise. Here is what sets RX Solutions apart.
 Confidentiality 
  • NDA and cleared personnel
  • Secure, closed facilities
  • Dedicated project manager
  • ISO 9001
  • COSAC certified

 20 years of CT experience 
  • 300+ systems still in service
  • Co-engineering with your teams
  • Full compliance and traceability
  • An Inspection Service team that puts our entire fleet of machines at your service
 Modularity by design 
  • 3 lines and 2 series to fit your needs
  • Scalable software, detectors and components
  • Grows from R&D to series production

Custom CT system 
  • Non-standard need? We co-design a custom solution for parts that fall outside the standards. Learn more
 Worldwide presence 
  • Dedicated distributor in each country
  • Local support and training teams
  • Discussions in your language, close to your site
  • Fast on-site intervention by local experts

 Full life-cycle support 
  • Application and feasibility studies
  • System development and integration
  • Operator training
  • Ongoing support, upgrades and maintenance

Want to inspect a defense part without destroying it? Let us guide you.

Tell us about your needs and the parts you want to analyze, and we’ll come back to you with a personalized recommendation.

 


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Defense FAQ

Why is industrial CT used in defense?
Industrial CT lets you inspect the inside of components without destroying them. In a sector where the slightest failure can compromise a mission or endanger operators, it detects invisible internal defects and supports a zero-defect requirement.
What types of analyses can industrial CT perform?
Industrial CT supports a wide variety of analyses, including:
  • porosity and inclusions,
  • cracks and delaminations,
  • assembly defects,
  • thickness or density variations,
  • weld or electronic connection defects,
  • dimensional measurements,
  • CAD comparison.
Why does CT replace 2D radiography in defense?
Because 2D radiography projects a volume onto a flat image: internal defects overlap and become unreadable on complex geometries. Industrial CT reconstructs a complete 3D model in which each defect is precisely located in all three dimensions. It is today the only method able to inspect composites, additively manufactured parts, multi-material assemblies or miniaturized electronics (where 2D reaches its limits).
Which defense components can be inspected with CT?
CT applies to all the main families of critical components in the sector: aerospace parts (turbine blades, composite structures), weapons (ammunition, warheads, fuzes), protective equipment (ballistic plates, helmets), electronics and batteries, additive manufacturing parts, and energetic materials (charges, detonators, pyrotechnic cables). From the sub-millimeter detail to the large dense metal part, it is the choice of system that matches resolution and power to the component.
How does industrial CT fit into the product life cycle?
Industrial CT is used at every stage:
  • in development: validation of prototypes and material choices,
  • in production: defect detection and quality validation,
  • in maintenance (MRO): inspection of in-service parts and failure analysis.
Is CT inspection truly non-destructive?
Yes. CT inspects 100% of the inside of a component without cutting it: the part stays intact and fully usable after inspection. It eliminates sectioning and sample preparation, and makes it possible to inspect already-assembled components that couldn’t be opened without destroying them.
How does RX Solutions guarantee data confidentiality and sovereignty?
Inspection is carried out in-house, in your controlled environment: no sensitive data leaves your walls. This control is reinforced by a framework suited to sensitive contexts (non-disclosure agreements (NDA)), cleared personnel and secure facilities. Your strategic parts and your intellectual property remain protected throughout the inspection.
Which CT system should I choose depending on the application?
Le choix dépend de la densité, de la taille et du niveau de détail recherché. La ligne Explorer (micro-CT) The choice depends on density, size and the level of detail required. The Explorer line (micro-CT) covers varied parts, the Nano line targets submicron resolution (electronics, powders), and the Force line provides high energy for dense parts (shells, armor). Two series complete the offer: FAB for automated production, Metrology for certified measurement. For non-standard needs, RX Solutions designs custom-made systems.
Discover our CT systems: micro-CT, nano-CT, high-energy CT, custom-made.