SBIR-STTR Award

Naval air and surface combatant forces are confronting ever-evolving more dangerous, more complex, more distant and more diverse high value targets during land and sea warfare operations. Our technical submission illustrates representative examples for some of these diverse high value target types, including naval ships, bunkers, buildings, POL refineries and power plants. Effective attack of these kinds of targets require warheads with various combinations of penetration, blast and fragmentation lethal effects initiated by sophisticated fuzing systems. An important consequence of these high value targets is naval strike power projection from aircraft and surface ship missile launch platforms need greater standoff ranges. Greater standoff ranges for missiles require more fuel with more weight. As missile launch weights are essentially fixed, more weight for fuel means less weight for some other onboard system, which is usually only available from the warhead. Thus the difficult challenge is to create lighter weight warheads with the same or better lethality.

Benefit:
As a representative example, the Navys Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), which is closely related to the Air Forces JASSM system, carries the 1000 lb WDU-42/B penetrator/blast warhead with 240 lbs of AFX-757 high explosive and the FMU-156/B Hard Target Smart Fuze (according to unclassified open sources). Reducing LRASMs warhead weight to 750 lbs would theoretically allow a 250 lb increase in fuel system weight (assuming enough missile airframe volume) with a significant increase in standoff range. In this regard, our proposal and technical white paper introduces our notional design concept for an innovative 750 lb LRASM warhead, titled Adaptive Multi-Mission Ordnance or AMMO. The novel design of the additively manufactured titanium casing maximizes penetration capabilities and total lethality.

Keywords:
penetrating warhead, penetrating warhead, LRASM, anti-ship warhead prototype, HDRM warhead, improved anti-ship lethality, offensive anti-surface warfare, blast fragmentation warhead, increased stand-off weapon distance

Breault Research is proud to provide our Navy customer with the technology and tools to design, produce and field a true Twenty First Century warhead. Breaults Adaptive Multi-Mission Ordnance (AMMO) incorporates state-of-the-art lethality materials and flexible configurations to optimize warhead effectiveness in a smaller form factor. Breaults unique design and production processes provide the Navy with a clear path forward to successfully field enhanced lethality in a reduced form factor that is easily scalable for integration into a wide range of weapons. The AMMO design incorporates new, innovative warhead configurations leveraging existing and innovative reactive materials. AMMO brings novel design and manufacturing tools to save on cost, reduce size and weight while significantly increasing warhead damage on target. The goal of the AMMO design is to deliver equivalent or greater weapon effects as currently fielded weapons (e.g., Harpoon, LRASM for anti-ship) in a smaller, lighter form factor. The foundation of our technical approach will be to pursue partnerships with DoD prime contractors, including Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control (MFC) and Boeing Phantom Works who have both provided Letters of Support for our Phase II effort. In addition, collaboration with Naval Warfare Centers, including NSWC Indian Head and NSWC Carderock to assist in development and integration of AMMO technology for the Navys anti-ship mission will be vitally important. Figure 5 from our Phase I Final Report summarizes the results of our Phase I work which was focused on potential development of a lighter 750 lb warhead replacement for LRASM that incorporates AMMO technology. The Figure shows multiple possible paths of AMMO future development interest, expressed by the LRASM Program (Lockheed), as well as Harpoon, OASuW & HALO Programs (Boeing PW). The first task for our Phase II work will be to determine the best path forward for AMMO development based on Prime Contractor continued interest, requirements and support coupled with ONR/USG direction, coordination and recommendations. AMMO technology is versatile, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of payload options. Our point of departure for Phase II tasking will start from the Phase I results and down-select to the AMMO-4C Multi-Purpose design configuration.

Benefit:
Warhead Systems Team is already working closely with key Prime DOD contractors, as shown in Figure 46 (also refer to Lockheed and Boeing Phase II Letters of Support in the Section 8 Attachments) to determine path forward for implementing the AMMO warhead insertion into current and near-term pending weapon programs. Breaults team is highly experienced at warhead integration with modern precision guided weapons such as Tomahawk, Paveway, Griffin and Coyote. Breault is working directly with Kaman for potential integration of their FMU-156/B fuze as depicted in Figure 47. Boeing has shown significant interest in the AMMO warhead for their Phantom Works weapons development programs. The Phantom Works Chief Engineer, Dr. Michael McKee, discussed integrating the AMMO warhead into several development programs including: 1. Boeings Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive anti-surface warfare missile (HALO). The Navy is seeking $92 million in research and development funding for HALO in FY23 and aims to the field the technology in FY28. (Figure 49) 2. The updated Harpoon anti-ship missile. More than 600 ships, 180 submarines and 12 aircraft types are outfitted with the current Harpoon Block II. (Figure 48) 3. Other future weapons development by Phantom Works Lockheed is currently supporting the AMMO warhead for potential integration into their Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM, see Figure 50). The Warhead Systems Team would work as suppliers to Lockheed for LRASM system integration, warhead production and system-of-systems testing. Unclassified operational requirements specifically focus on anti-ship kinetic defeat for the U.S. Navy. The LRASM Program needs a lighter, smaller, enhanced warhead that performs at or better than the current JASSM-ER 1,000-pound WDU-42/B warhead. Lower weight and smaller form factor would provide additional fuel for greater standoff range or upgrades to advanced electronics. The AMMO warhead must be capable of penetrating enemy combatant hulls into vulnerable interior spaces for maximum damage (enhanced blast, fragmentation and incendiary effects). Per discussions with Boeing and Lockheed, the path to subsequent Phase 2 Operational Assessment and initial fielding will be in partnership with one of these primes and the Navy. The funding will be part of the Navys POM request for HALO, for example, to integrate an enhanced warhead into the hypersonic missile system. Integrating the lower cost, enhanced AMMO warhead would save the HALO program funding through reduced material and manufacturing costs.

Keywords:
Reactive Materials, anti-ship, enhanced lethality warhead