The proposed effort will research development of an onboard 1 MW auxiliary power unit (APU) and cooling capability for installation on heavy aircraft. One important objective is that the total package that includes a generator, a prime mover, and an auxiliary compressor to weigh no more than 1400 lb. Such a solution does not currently exist. Development of technical objective is to be carried out employing a systems approach, keeping a focus on complete integration of all components, and balancing the impact of the APU on the current propulsion system. This innovation, once developed, could provide a lightweight, scaleable enabling power supply and cooling capability for special applications including countermeasures and directed energy weapons (DEW). All four major turbine engine companies have endorsed the effort (pp. 18-19) and are a part of the team. A direct benefit of this research will be development of a lightweight, optimized APU for the Air Force DEW activities. USAF has focused much of its attention on high-energy lasers (HEL) and high power microwave technologies (HPM), and regards the two as complementary to each other. In addition to destroying missiles, infrared countermeasures is another near term application for HEL. The development of sophisticated missile seekers able to discern between flares and target aircraft has prompted the Air Force to seek solutions that damage the missile seeker rather than simply jamming it. Similar DEW efforts are underway with the US Navy's mid-infrared advanced chemical laser (MIRACL) and the Army's nautilus/tactical HEL system. The approach for this research effort is to develop a lightweight and modular APU design that can be readily scaled up or down. It is likely that the turbine powered APU could provide a modularized power source for DOD's DEW and countermeasures activities, be it airborne, sea, or land based. As these first generation weapons yield to more compact, powerful and affordable 2nd and 3rd generation systems, we replace bullets/missiles with microwave and photon.
