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

MaxPower Inc. is proposing the development of an energy dense lithium reserve battery for air-to-surface missile applications based on their missile operational environment validated Lithium/Vanadium Pentoxide technology. The basis of the effort is the reserve battery designed to meet the requirements of the reentry vehicle on the Minuteman III ICBM. This battery met the electrical and safety requirements following nonoperational and operational environment testing while also providing significant weight reductions when compared to the fielded Zinc/Silver Oxide system and the competing thermal battery. The development in this program will pursue a direct scale up of the battery, taking advantage of the proven functionality of the activation system and battery configuration. The proposed design concept meets the envelope requirements while the projected 7.9 lb weight and 185 Ws/g specific energy provide significant improvements over the presently fielded battery. Development work will focus on validating the design concept against the provided load profile, demonstrating the ability to meet the power requirements across the entire temperature range at the cell level, before scaling up to the battery level. Phase I activities will conclude with a battery design with proven power capabilities and a high confidence of operational environment integrity.