Lightweight Integral Heatshield and Substructure with Integral EMI/Ground Plane/Lightning Strike Protection and Conformal Antennae for High Performanc

The program objective is to develop and demonstrate the cost effective and producible lightweight Integral Heatshield and Substructure (IH&S) with integral EMI shielding/ground plane/lightning strike protection (EMI/GP/LSP) and integral conformal antenna aeroshell technology for the THAAD KV interceptor program. Conventional approaches for interceptor aeroshells use a high temperature fiberglass/phenolic heatshield secondarily-bonded to a separately fabricated carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite structure. The IH&S design concept was proven in the SMDC/MDA Composites and Advanced Materials '05 program to be a low cost, lightweight, and robust alternative. The enabling technology is the High Performance Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (HyPerVARTMT) process used to infuse a single high temperature resin (YLA RS-9e poly-cyanate). However, the integral approach has not yet had opportunity to demonstrate through fabrication integral EMI shielding, an integral ground plane, and lightning strike protection currently a part of the flight test hardware nor conformal antenna technology. This Phase I study will investigate alternative lightweight conductive materials and demonstrate the feasibility of the lightweight IH&S concept with EMI/GP/LSP and integral conformal antenna aeroshell technology for the THAAD KV interceptor program. A Phase II program would develop and demonstrate a full scale prototype for insertion into the THAAD flight test program.