Weapon Payloads for Bulk Chemical and Biological Agent Neutralization

Current offensive solutions to neutralize chem/bio agent facilities rely on blast and/or short-burst high-temperature neutralization but have the potential to produce severe collateral damage via agent release. Our team proposes the Dispersed Energetics Coupled for Optimized Neutralization (DECON) Concept, an alternative concept to perform bulk neutralization of agents. The DECON concept can be summarized as the generation and dispersal of a mass of controlled burning, but not flaming, material dispersed throughout the target. While conventional weapons dump energy into the entire target very quickly, our concept would distribute energy generating material throughout the target that would adhere to agent storage containers. By coupling directly to containers, the energy transferred to the container is maximized. As the materials will burn at temperatures below container melting points and over the order of minutes, long term heating and neutralization of the bulk agent may be realized. The Phase 1 effort will demonstrate the feasibility of key aspects DECON Concept. Our team will perform modeling and experimentation on energy transfer into agent stimulants, characterize long term neutralization properties of agents and stimulants, and execute the necessary experiments and trade studies to select promising candidate materials for transition to a Phase 2 effort.