Electrical Hull Penetrator Connectors for Directed Energy Weapon Systems

Hepburn and Sons LLC is pleased to submit this proposal to develop SUBSAFE Electrical Hull Penetrator (EHP) Connectors for Directed Energy (DE) Weapon Systems. Hepburn has teamed with the highly qualified manufacturer AMETEK SCP Inc. to design, develop, and test the HP-EHP during the execution of this SBIR. The Navy seeks technologies for transmitting the high electrical power from inboard US submarines to support the operation of DE systems and other undersea platforms and weapons systems or to support Special Operations Forces (SOF). The current vision and one of the stated committed goals of US Navy (USN) leadership is to move towards the development of DE weapon systems that will offer an integral new set of technologies and unique new capabilities (both defensive and offensive) into the USN submarine forces. This effort to develop a High-Power Electrical Hull Penetrator (HP-EHP) will support a potential US submarine DE integration such as the surface navy’s High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical Dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS) effort. The strategy to accomplish this goal of deploying a DE weapon onto submarines and supporting other systems from submarines requires USN submarines to serve as a source of high electrical power levels capable of supplying the electrical energy needs of power-hungry undersea systems. In addition to supporting the needs of a future DE system or other systems, the USN must develop the capability to support various sizes and configurations of Unmanned Undersea  Vehicles (UUVs) such as the US Navy’s Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV) and the Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUVs) as outlined in the US Navy Strategic Unmanned Systems Roadmap. In addition to unmanned systems, the USN is also interested in the ability to more easily support off-board manned vehicles used by SOF, such as Sea Air Land (SEAL) Delivery Vehicles (SDVs), which are wet subs designed to transport frogmen from a combat swimmer unit or naval Special Forces underwater, over long distances. In order to support the range of potential systems identified above, the Navy must first develop a SUBSAFE EHP connector embedded in the submarine’s pressure hull, which would be capable of transferring the high currents or high voltages in the order of 100’s of kilowatts (kW).