SBIR Phase 1: Riverine Assault Support System

Current riverine craft are built in aluminum. Although aluminum is an obvious candidate material for a riverine operating environment, innovative solutions that deliver structural weight reduction to enable higher speeds, greater payload and increased survivability are always desired. Advanced lightweight composite structural armor concepts, comprised of hybrid fiber reinforced materials, graded structures and specialty 3D reinforcement architectures have the potential to reduce the weight of a highly survivable riverine craft. Additionally, the use of an open and scalable C4ISR architecture is critical to leverage existing Commercial-off-the Shelf (COTS) and Government-off-the-Shelf (GOTS) based technologies and future systems in support of the present and evolving mission requirements. The innovation outlined in our proposal is the use of advanced composite materials combined with innovative hull forms, enhanced survivability and integration of open C4ISR capabilities and logistics procedures to improve the performance and survivability of riverine craft.