SBIR-STTR Award

DDG 1000 mooring stations are multifunctional areas with conflicting demands for space and manning. In addition to normal mooring station needs, the ship’s design includes requirements for stowage, temporary but rapid deployment, and automated or manual operation of weapons, sensors and other electronics from the same areas used for cables and other anchorage hardware. This dual-use space requires novel weapons mounts meeting strength, stiffness, cost, weight, safety and durability requirements of fixed mounts, while stowing out of the way with the smallest possible size and interference when not used. Mount design must consider congested floors, require minimal modification to existing ship structures, and not introduce static or dynamic loads beyond the capability of existing ship structure. Most importantly, the new mount must go from stowed to deployed/operational position quickly and reliably, either automatically or with manual override. In Phase I KaZaK will work with system primes to finalize mooring station mount requirements, then refine/develop proposed mount design innovations through analysis and scaled prototypes. Both metal and novel composite materials will be evaluated, with design trades considering deployment speed, reliability, stiffness, durability and cost. Full scale prototype fabrication, assembly and testing of a full mount is anticipated in Phase II.

Keywords:
Compact Stowage, Weapons Mounts, Rapid Deployment, Automated/Manual Operation, Low Cost Composite Manufacturing, Reconfigurable Ship Spaces, Ddg1 1000

During our Phase I SBIR program, KaZaK Composites, Inc., in collaboration with Raytheon IDS, developed and evaluated concepts that enabled compact stowage and automated deployment of self defense systems located in shared spaces of seven different mooring stations on DDG 1000. The design problem confronted was the need to store either the ROSAM gun system or LRAD nonlethal defense system in the smallest possible out of the way location, then automatically deploy the system in as short a time as possible with a mount design that allows the defense systems to operate at desired performance levels. Due to differences among the mooring station layouts, unique deployment mechanisms were required for each location. Proposed Phase II work would continue the gun mount design maturation based on current DDG 1000 mooring station floor plans. The Navy will be asked to down-select the design scenario it prefers at each station so KaZaK can perform a detailed broad-based design program that defines specific mount characteristics, materials of construction and performance estimates for prototype manufacture. A representative prototype will be built and included in a Navy live fire test that will collect performance data for creating mature designs for ship deployment in Phase III.

Keywords:
Automated Deployment, Automated Deployment, Ddg 1000, Deployable Weapons Mount, Lightweight Structures, Manual Override, Reconfigurable Ship Spaces, Self Defense, Mooring Stat