Non-Toxic, Non-Incendiary Obscurant Smoke for Ammunition and Munitions

The proposed program addresses the development of a safe to breathe smoke consisting of mainly TiO2 and KCl particulates with the option of including fog oil as well in a hybrid device configuration. The effort will address further smoke characterization as well as scale-up to a 5"(dia) by 30"long device as a proof of concept leading to fills for 81 mm and 120 mm mortar applications and eventual transition into Cannon Artillery applications with minimum expected collateral damage. The effort is based on further exploration and scale-up of unique thermo-chemical processes developed by General Sciences, Inc. (GSI) and tested at the Edgewood Army Facility (ECBC) where extremely high extinction coefficients were observed. Obscuration in the infrared (IR) region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is also addressed with unique concepts to introduce highly oriented/high conductivity graphite based particulates into the device as well.