SWARMER - Optimal Carriage of Multiple Small Smart Weapons

Changing roles in strike aircraft and technological advances have shaped the trends in aircraft weapon systems development toward "smaller and smarter". These small smart weapon systems currently under development include: SSB (Small Smart Bomb), Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD), and LOCAAS (Low Cost Autonomous Attack Submunition). The overall mission effectiveness of these systems is significantly hampered by the lack of suspension & release equipment capable of dispensing multiple smart weapons. The "SWARMER" (Smart Weapons Array Multiple Ejector Rack) is a multiple carriage dispensing system optimized for maximum loadout of these small smart weapon systems. Designed for both internal and external carriage, the SWARMER acts as a "force multiplier", allowing aircraft to independently target and deploy significantly more smart weapons per mission. The SWARMER's electronic architecture allows continuous data transfer between the aircraft and each weapon through a single MIL-STD-1760 interface. The SWARMER baseline, proposed in this Phase I SBIR, takes advantage of existing S&RE technology in order to field a system as rapidly and cost effectively as possible. This "first-generation" baseline will serve as a host platform for future, preplanned technological advancements in smart, multiple carriage and dispensing systems.