SBIR-STTR Award

Changes in the world political situation from a U.S.-Soviet bipolarity to a new multipolar world have resulted in a change to the U.S. national military strategy. In this post-Soviet world, U.S. forces will be presented with not only expanded regional conflicts among Third World countries but also an increased nuclear, chemical, and biological (NBC) weapons threat in terms of diversity and frequency. The past decade has shown that many nations have opted to develop NBC weapons programs. This development has been either for aggressive purposes or as a deterrent against a neighbor who possesses or is attempting to possess such weapons. The V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft will be in the forefront of supporting the mission of this post-Cold War power projection fighting force. As such, the V-22 is faced with having to operate and survive in an NBC environment. Therefore, survivability of the V-22 must include NBC detection of contaminants in the aircrew breathing system or environmental control system (ECS) and alert/warn the V-22 crew when unacceptable levels are reached. Detection of the V-22 must be approached in a logical and integrated fashion, whereby, a concept of an NBC detection and warning system for the aircrew system and ECS is developed first. From this concept will evolve the equipment design and prototype upon which detection for the V-22 aircrew system and ECS can be accomplished.

The U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) at Warminster, PA awarded an SBIR Phase I contract to EAI Corporation in May 1994. The Phase I effort assessed the utility and applicability of chemical agent detection technologies and fielded systems for the V-22 aircraft. A front end analysis (FEA) and trade-off analysis (TOA) was performed in order to select the optimum chemical agent point and stand-off detectors for the V-22. Finally, several candidate detection and warning system concepts were formulated for implementation into the V-22 aircraft which integrated this suite of chemical detectors. The fundamentals technical objective of Phase II will be to select an optimized concept based on validated V-22 operational requirements and to demonstrate that a chemical agent stand-off and point detection system (CASOPDS) for the V-22 will enhance the chemical survivability of the aircraft. In order to successfully accomplish the fundamental objective of the Phase II program, five tasks must be performed. The five tasks are presented below: - Perform CASOPDS Requirements Definition and Validation - Perform Front End analysis (FEA) and Trade-off Analysis (TOA) of CASOPDS concepts - Formulate a Prototype Design for CASOPDS - Fabricate/Acquire Hardware for CASOPDS Prototype - Test/Demonstrate the CASOPDS Prototype.