Award Data

The Missile Defense Agency is seeking innovative material and manufacturing processes for advanced metallic components for hypersonic flight systems. Triton Systems and their academic partner are proposing to develop the manufacturing and qualification evaluation techniques for reliable production of hypersonic environment appropriate metallic components at reduced cost and timelines compared to t ...

Through this MDA Phase I STTR program, NanoSonic shall work with the high energy laboratory at Penn State and with input from a major US integrator of hypersonic vehicles to develop improved high temperature radome materials for uncooled aerodynamic reentry and hypersonic vehicles. Through prior work, NanoSonic has developed and demonstrated high temperature materials with good thermal insulating ...

The harsh environment posed by hypersonic flight makes antenna design challenging due to extreme temperature exposure coupled with often competing mechanical/aero and RF performance requirements. FIRST RF proposes an advancement to its numerous conformal antenna technologies utilizing additive manufacturing of dielectric materials. This approach will decouple the competing RF and mechanical requir ...

NanoSonic will work with Penn State to develop inexpensive automated manufacturing processes for the production of ceramic matrix composite thermal protective system materials with high temperature thermal performance and high thermal insulation propertiesWe will fabricate materials using automated robotic production methods, and perform testing, including high energy irradiation at Penn State’s ...

The Advanced Composite Structures group at Physical Sciences Inc. has partnered with the University of Virginia to develop a high temperature, ceramic syntactic foam that can be fabricated using additive manufacturing (AM) techniques. The AM ceramic insulator is compatible for co-processing with other CMC components such as aeroshells, fins, and additional hypersonic flight vehicle control surface ...

Estes Energetics and Battelle Memorial Institute will apply a fast, affordable manufacturing technology—proven to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 and Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) 4—that manufactures a layer of carbon-carbon directly on composite structures without requiring use of an autoclave or densification process holds, resulting in reduced manufacturing time while improving com ...

Diode-pumped alkali lasers (DPAL) offer the potential for scaling to high output powers required for directed energy weapons systems. As power-scaling studies have progressed, increasing concern has emerged about uncertainty in the roles of higher-lying states and the degree of ionization, and their effects on device performance. Ionization by multi-photon absorption and collisional energy pooling ...

Physical Sciences, Inc. (PSI) will develop an Ultra High Apparent Temperature Large Format Infrared Scene Projector (UHAT-LF-IRSP) employing digital micromirror device (DMD) technology with structured quantum cascade laser (QCL) illumination, addressing requirements for next generation scene projector capabilities to keep pace with evolving threats and associated threat detection sensors. Of prima ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will leverage its extensive experience in infrared scene projector (IRSP) design and harsh environmental operability to create a hybrid, foveated, radiation hardened IRSP (RH-IRSP). This design allows long-life, low-maintenance, modular and field-upgradable operation of conventional optical components inside a pressure, thermal and radiation environment similar to that ...

The importance of situational awareness cannot be overstated in its relation to all players within the missile defense community. Early and deep understanding of the situation surrounding a particular asset can be the difference in mission success. Consistent communication enables a deep understanding of the Blue Force/Red Force laydown and ensures consistency in a threat annihilation approach. Th ...