SBIR/STTR Award attributes
In this project we are proposing additive manufacturing tailored lethality (AMTL) munition casing as a novel technique to tailor fragmentation for optimized lethality against a particular threat. This can be accomplished by seeding the component with engineered material discontinuities (i.e. intentional cavities or microstructure discontinuities). The discontinuities can be designed to follow a 2D or a 3D pattern across the thickness of munition casings to optimize the fragmentation size and shape for optimum target specific lethality that enables the maximum probability of intercepting the target with a lethal fragment for various intended targets (e.g. hard targets, soft targets, personnel, vehicle, structure, etc). AMTL enables engineered lethality by controlling the number, direction, mass, and velocity distributions created as the warhead casing is accelerated outward by the high explosive blast upon detonation. AMTL warheads are expected to offer: (i) similar size and shape of conventional munition but with greater effectiveness, (ii) miniaturizing warhead while maintaining lethality of conventional warheads via tailored fragmentations, (iii) short lead time from feedstock to final product, (iv) cost effectiveness via production as needed vs conventional mass production and warehousing approach, (v) agile response to threat and new material by the ability to select the warhead material from the state-of the art feedstock (e.g. AF 9628) instead of using century old materials, and (vi) DoD controlled supply chain via distributed manufacturing vs single source limitations.
