Gunfire Defense Against Anti-Ship Missiles

We propose to develop an energetic payload fired from the Navy's standard five-inch gun which is capable of defeating modern antiship missiles at distances greater than five kilometers. The defeat mechanism is based on exploitation of highly exothermic condensed phase reactions producing three ingredients which play key role in missile-defeat. These include: the generation of non-oxidizing metal vapor, an intense fireball consisting of reactive/hot particulates and reactive hot pellets of higher penetration capability. The defeat mechanism results from one or a combination of several effects such as blinding IR and RF sensors by intense fireball and on the metal coating, as well as mechanical damage to the missile structure by the hot refractory fragments with high penetration capability.