Systems Approach to Liquid Hypergolic Propellant Shipboard and Air-Transport Safety of BMDS Elements

The US Navy, through the Weapons Systems Explosive Safety Review Board (WSESRB), has not approved deploying liquid hypergolic propellants (LHP) for missile defense applications aboard surface ships and submarines, and the US Air Force has limitations on shipping LHP systems. For this proposed project, Streamline Automation will develop a modular and scalable suite of LHP Monitoring & Mitigation technologies designed to allow safe air transport and sea-basing of ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) assets. The system engineering approach will take into account the complex nature of the BMDS acquisition program, and includes the use of current and planned hypergolic leakage sensor systems. The proposed system will neutralize leaked fuel or oxidizer using an appropriate chemical reaction in order to prevent the build-up of hazardous concentrations. The proposed effort will design, assemble, and test a full-scale prototype liquid hypergolic propellant leak mitigation system.