Ruggedized, Reconfigurable, Shock-Vibration Hardened Watercraft Stowage System

The backbone of the 21st century fleet will be the next-generation of surface combatants such as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The LCS will primarily operate in the littoral combat space acting as a central point of deployment, capture and re-deployment of naval surface craft and submersibles. The littoral combat space is also one of the key strategic locations enemies will deploy explosive devices. Currently there is no mission module stowage system that is able to suitably protect these systems relative to naval shock and vibration specifications. This exposes the Navy’s fleet of costly and mission critical equipment to operational risks in the theater of combat. In this Phase II SBIR, Safe, Inc. will mature the design of a versatile reconfigurable shock- and vibration-resistant mission module cradle able to support a broad range of watercraft systems. The team will focus on selected mission modules (chosen by NAVSEA) and will fabricate a prototype cradle system and mission module surrogates that will be be subjected to land-based testing via functional and environmental tests. The prototype will also be evaluated using modeling and simulation techniques for shock and vibration hardness.