Anchoring Post-Intercept Debris Prediction Tools

Initial research into potential in-situ KA sensor technologies has uncovered viable sensor technologies and demonstrated the existence of exploitable features that could discriminate between objects of similar shape and size, but very different materials and internal structure. A few different KA sensor types have been hypothesized and it is likely that more than one sensor type is necessary to cover the extensive engagement phase space of the BMDS. Here, we intend to explore the viability of in-situ KA sensors for application on BMDS hit-to-kill interceptors. In particular, we intend to (i) continue exploration of the physical environment within interceptor structures during the very early stages of impact using first-principles physics-based codes covering the relevant engagement phase space of interest (e.g. closing speed, strike angle, target type, etc.), (ii) engineer a notional KA sensor design for homeland defense interceptors, and (iii) conduct component-level testing for promising KA sensor types to demonstrate the approach.