Innovative, Multi-Functional Kill Vehicle Primary Structures via 3D and Additive Manufacturing

Referencing Pue, et.al., Missile Concept Optimization for Ballistic Missile Defense, Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, The kill vehicle divert maneuver and guidance capabilities must be sized to remove system errors and accomplish intercept, but this need conflicts with the objective to maximize the missile kinematic capability to reach potential threat trajectories.Goodman Technologies in partnership with a Small Business spin-off from Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of Hawaii at Mnoa, (UHM, a Minority Serving Institution and a strategic Navy University Affiliated Research Center, UARC) will resolve this conflict using 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) to produce novel, innovative, multifunctional KV structures (e.g., a hollow-core primary structure containing propellant) which maximum volumetric efficiency and improve BMD system performance by increasing kinematic capability.Our combined 3D/AM processing also provides a means for modularizing designs of kill vehicles, enables rapid prototyping, drastically increases production rates, while also reducing system lifecycle costs. Team GT will use 3D/AM to produce multifunctional, Low Z ceramic nanocomposite hollow-core structures which have specific stiffness similar to (and possibly superior to) beryllium (the highest specific stiffness metal), and which provide maximum volumetric efficiency.Unlike beryllium, SiC is plentiful, 16X less expensive and not a biohazard.Approved for Public Release | 18-MDA-9710 (6 Jul 18)