High Power Battery for Long-Range Air-to-Surface Missile

MaxPower Inc. is proposing the continued development of a lithium reserve battery for air-to-surface missile (ASM) applications based on their missile operational environment validated Lithium/Vanadium Pentoxide technology. The basis for this Phase II effort is the Phase I work performed on reconfiguring a reserve battery, originally designed to meet the requirements of the reentry vehicle on the Minuteman III ICBM, to those of Navy long-range missile applications. The original battery met the electrical and safety requirements following environmental testing while also providing significant weight reductions when compared to the fielded Zinc/Silver Oxide system and the competing thermal battery. The development in the Phase I program demonstrated the battery systems ability to meet the ASM power and energy requirements via prototype cell testing. These tests led to a revised battery energy projection that surpassed the program goal of 200 Ws/g, with a projected mass of 7.9 lbs, well under the 13 lb maximum requirement. Phase II development work will focus on increasing battery design fidelity and validating the design via full battery testing with particular attention focused on low temperature performance. Prototype batteries will be built for internal functional testing and for delivery to the Navy for their testing.