Multipurpose Reactive Materials

Next generation energy rich materials are under development for both military and civilian uses. These materials are non-explosive (they do not detonate) and are generally referred to as "Reactive Materials". Reactive materials are being developed in conjunction with, or independent of, classical explosives; reactive materials serve as blast enhancers for thermobaric explosives, reactive fragments cause enhanced lethality damage to missiles and enclosed systems when compared to inert kinetic energy penetrators, produce high temperature, structurally conforming fireballs for the defeat of biological and chemical agents, allow the destruction of land mines without causing damaging detonation, produce reactive shape charge liners for defeat of concrete and armor targets, as well as providing "stealth" defeat of electronic equipment and other applications, currently under development, to benefit both defense and research. General Sciences with guidance from the U.S. Army will develop technology and applications, specifically suited to low velocity, close to the ground encounters and targets of interest to the U.S. Army. Several tasks are proposed in order to demonstrate the suitability of GSI technology in meeting the needs of the Army for new reactive materials and warhead concepts and to develop a test plan to transition into larger scale tests in a second phase.