SBIR-STTR Award

Ensuring U.S. technological superiority over potential adversaries through the use of emerging technologies to improve warfighter lethality, survivability, and mobility is central in the effort to maintain effective fighting forces. Conventional medium caliber projectiles fall short of desired effectiveness due to many physical and environmental factors such as aiming inaccuracy, component manufacturing tolerances, wind effects, etc. A guided projectile that could eliminate these factors at long (or short) ranges would substantially improve hit probability, increasing effective range and lethality. Longer standoff distances also contribute to higher warfighter survivability. Further, increased lethality of smaller caliber weapons contributes to greater force mobility. The objective of this Phase I effort is to develop a technically feasible concept for a medium caliber guided projectile and its guidance and control system. Our approach exploits recent advances in 'smart' material development to provide an innovative projectile flight control mechanism driven through a very simple communications link to its weapon-based transceiver. The flight control mechanism's simplicity and robust configuration offers high survivability for the severe launch and flight conditions anticipated. We propose a 25 mm diameter projectile to highlight its simplicity and compactness, though the concept readily scales to the full range of interest (12mm to 40mm). This guided projectile will significantly increase effective range and lethality over currently available munitions, with direct application to a broad range of existing military and law enforcement weapon platforms.

Conventional medium caliber projectiles fall short of desired effectiveness due to factors such as aiming inaccuracy, component manufacturing tolerances, wind effects, etc. A guided projectile that could obviate these factors would substantially improve hit probability, increasing effective range and lethality. Commensurately longer standoff distances also increase warfighter survivability. Further, increased lethality of smaller caliber weapons may reduce reliance on larger caliber (less mobile) munitions, contributing to greater force mobility. Our Phase I program resulted in a conceptual design for a medium caliber gun launched guided projectile and its transceiver, aimed at addressing these needs. Our approach exploits recent advances in 'smart' material development to provide an innovative flight control mechanism driven through a very simple communications link to its transceiver, in a low cost and rugged configuration. In Phase II, we will refine our design for compatibility with desired maneuverability and gun launch and flight loads, build prototype projectiles, and demonstrate their performance in a progressive series of tests, culminating in flight demonstration of projectile maneuver capability at extended range. While the Phase II design is based on the Bofors 40mm L70 HEIT round, our concept readily scales to the full range of interest (12mm to 40mm).

Keywords:
Conventional Medium Caliber Projectiles Fall Short Of Desired Effectiveness Due To Factors Such As Aiming Inaccuracy, Component Manufacturing Toleranc