Lightweight Layered Protection Systems for Missile Launchers and Canisters

A major objective in the design of Navy missile systems is to protect its high value missile and ship assets and lives of personnel from an explosion of the missile due to threats during transportation and storage. The Navy is developing the advanced SM-6 missile, which is transported and stored in a canister and then installed and launched in a vertical launch system on borne ships. The canister is designed to provide the missile with an environment that is safe for transport and storage while serving as the missile launch rail within the launcher. During transportation of the missile and canister in the theater environment, threats will include thermal threats such as jet fuel fires and ballistic impact threats from armor-piercing bullets, high speed fragments from Improvised Explosive Devices, and shaped charge fragments from Rocket Propelled Grenades. The missile must be protected from these threats to avoid degradation and possible catastrophic detonations of the motor case propellant and loss of the missile, adjacent missiles, equipment, and lives. Lightweight protection systems for the canister are needed to protect the missile and its propellant from these threats. Past approaches for development and evaluation of threat protection concepts has been based largely on costly and time-consuming experimental and empirical methods to evaluate all of the possible variables such as materials, thicknesses, geometry, and threat conditions. Modeling & Simulation tool (M&S) capabilities have advanced to a state where they can be cost-effectively used to evaluate threat conditions and develop protection systems. A novel lightweight layered concept is proposed for ballistic impact, blast and thermal threats. A program will be conducted to define and develop the lightweight layered protection system for the Navy high value missile canister application using state of art M&S tools for assessment of current designs and optimization of new designs.