Penetrator Fuze Shock Mitigation Concepts

Fuzes in hard target penetrators are exposed to high-frequency resonances, due to both axial deceleration in straight-in impacts and to ‘tail slap’ when the weapon strikes obliquely or with a horizontal velocity component. The FMU-152 Joint Programmable Fuze, while not specifically designed as a hard target fuze, was originally specified to be compatible with BLU-109 and is designated for others such as BLU-113 and BLU-122. The team of KaZaK, Kaman Fuzing and ITT Advanced Engineering & Sciences offers mounting system design concepts for mitigating shock to this fuze, making use of the dynamic properties of novel nonmetallic materials to either cushion shock or couple to the rigid body motion of the penetrator. Kazak contributes mechanical and materials engineering expertise, Kaman its detailed knowledge of the problem history and fuzing technology, and ITT-AES its state-of-the-art analytical capability. Design concepts will be refined using the hydrocode LS-DYNA. They lend themselves readily to prototyping for the Air Force’s upcoming sled test program. End products for Phase I will be test articles for field installable options, and for backfit components not impacting configurations or assembly procedures. The outlook for Phase II is for production of several thousand pieces to be integrated into inventory hardware.