Award Data

Existing approaches to guidance and estimation for intercept of maneuvering targets are often dependent on assumed models of maneuvering target behavior. We have shown in Phase I that intercept lethality can be dramatically reduced when an interceptor guidance strategy optimized for a specific maneuvering target type encounters a target whose behavior differs from that of the assumed model. We th ...

JRD, Raytheon, and Tuskegee University have successfully completed the Phase I effort for design and development of an advanced solid state cryocooler for infrared sensor components. In addition, it was decided that the lowest-risk path forward for Phase II is the two-stage hybrid pulse tube / Joule-Thomson design. These initial calculations predict that efficiency potential of the solid state c ...

USING TECHNOLOGY NOW IN EXISTENCE AND NOW BEING DEVELOPED IT IS POSSIBLE TO BUILD A HIGH RELIABILITY, CRYOGENIC OXYGEN REFRIGERATOR. THE TEMPERATURE RANGE IN WHICH THE REFRIGERATOR WOULD FUNCTION WOULD BE CONTROLLABLE BETWEEN 70 AND 140 KELVIN. THE BASIS FOR THIS REFRIGERATION CYCLE WOULD BE CERAMIC ELECTROLYTE TECHNOLOGY BY WHICH OXYGEN CAN BE COMPRESSED USING AN ELECTRIC POTENTIAL ACROSS THE CER ...

Uncertainty quantification (UQ) can be performed with existing MDA M&S tools if efficient algorithms are developed and deployed. OptTek proposes to explore innovative methods and algorithms to 1) quantify output variation from all input uncertainties providing distributional information and extreme value identification, 2) isolate output variation from individual input uncertainties and from input ...

Phased array antenna systems are growing in use within military systems. These arrays of thousands of elements need precise control of the aperture distributions to meet requirements for gain, sidelobes, etc. Errors in these phase and amplitude distributions over time will degrade the performance of these apertures. FIRST RF favors simple concepts with little or no hardware impact that fully ch ...

Missile Defense Agency (MDA) requires high performance, high sensitivity and low noise infrared sensors for space based sensing applications that operate in environments where radiation hardness is essential to mission operation. Radiation hard by design (RHBD) readout integrated circuits (ROICs) decrease the overall cost of focal plane arrays (FPAs) by exploiting existing commercial foundries rat ...

The United States Government has an urgent need to update the Missile Defense Agency''s Ballistic Missile Defense program. A key element of this program is the telemetry link providing the critical data exchange between the Ground Based Telemetry System and the airborne interceptor vehicle. This mission requires a broadband telemetry link supporting a high data rate on both the uplink and downli ...

A simulation optimization tool can exploit existing BMDS simulation models to streamline the scenario generation analysis process. Our Phase I project will focus on using a simulation optimization approach to solve the problem of generating a minimal collection of test scenarios, using the minimum number of shared scenario components, that meets a required set of test objectives. Each individual ...

Welkin Sciences proposes to develop the Interceptor Missile Communication Relay Architecture (IMCRA), a hardened communication network specifically tailored to support robust data communication between a ground terminal and interceptor missiles under severe war-time environments. IMCRA is an extension of the Advanced Interceptor Data Link (AIDL) currently under development by Welkin Sciences. The ...

THIS EFFORT INVESTIGATES THE USE OF THE HIGH-SPEED ELECTRO-OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF FERROELECTRIC LIQUID CRYSTALS (FLC) TO MAKE OPTICAL CROSSBAR SWITCHES. THESE SWITCHES WOULD PERMIT LARGE NUMBERS (HUNDREDS TO THOUSANDS) OF INPUT LIGHT BEAMS MODULATED AT GHZ RATES TO BE CONNECTED TO AN EQUALLY LARGE NUMBER OF OUTPUTS. FLC SWITCHES ALSO REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF LIGHT LOST BETWEEN INPUT AND OUTPUT TO A SM ...