Award Data

Because of the maneuvering capabilities of adversaries’ new hypersonic weapons, defensive missiles must fly in very demanding flight regimes, and intercept maneuvers place stringent requirements on interceptor seeker systems. Successfully completing the hit-to-kill end game requires the seeker can either compensate for or perform despite the thermal and optical effects that cause the seeker to m ...

The US Navy has identified refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs) and metal additive manufacturing (AM) as enabling technologies to meet performance and sustainability targets for shipboard and aircraft systems. Key challenges include designing RHEAs and optimizing metal AM to achieve desired material properties for Navy propulsion applications. Developing materials and processes via traditional e ...

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects people, data, and "things" (e.g., software, sensors, platforms), facilitating the translation of information into actions. Although naval platforms’ networks and communication suites have evolved significantly in the past few years to support such required connectivity, one of the greatest technical challenges still facing the military community is the proce ...

Forward-looking infrared seekers are the preferred guidance system for current and future hypersonic interceptors. Seeker performance is limited by the infrared window’s ability to survive and image in a high-Mach, endo-atmospheric environment where heating rates can exceed 80 W/cm². Window materials primarily fail because of thermal shock, but can also experience issues due to absorption/emiss ...

Mounting of infrared (IR) windows on hypersonic vehicles is a critical design issue because of the stresses caused by high temperatures combined with the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the window and frame materials. Many applications use elastomeric seals to limit window distortion and stress by allowing for joint flexibility. However, windows and frames operating in this ...

Optically pumped magnetometers provide very high performance but they cost tens of thousands of dollars, and they are large and power hungry. Recently we successfully developed and commercialized laser pumped magnetometers with size, weight and power consumption that is an order of magnitude below current state-of-the-art without sacrificing performance. In this project, the focus will be on produ ...

Nanoscale, material sensitive, imaging techniques are critical for progress in many disciplines as we learn to master science and technology at the smallest dimensions — on the nanometer to atomic-scale. However, progress in both science and technology is becoming increasingly limited by the constraints of current imaging techniques and metrologies. Fortunately, by combining coherent extreme UV ...

This Phase II effort will further develop a technique to improve current seeker discrimination and tracking capabilities using a unique particle filter algorithm (PFA) approach. The advancement represents a significant upgrade to current and future seekers facing advanced threats in stressing environments. Quantifiable improvements over many facets of the current approach have been realized during ...

Predicting the emission signature and radar cross-section of rocket exhaust plumes is of vital interest to the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army to protect the U.S. homeland and our forces abroad.  The current STTR Phase II project has shown that a single-conditioned Premixed Conditional Moment Closure (PCMC) can employ detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms while efficiently modeling combustion ...

Health surveillance is the first line in detecting an epidemic and understanding its causes and progression and preventing a pandemic. It generally consists of systematic collection and reporting of population-based data for the purposes of detecting, characterizing, and countering health threats. While this seems sound in theory, by the time patients present with symptoms, laboratory specimens ar ...