Low Cost VARTM Composite Manufacturing Process for Missile Launch Canisters

"Missile defense system components, such as THAAD and PAC-3, use mobile missile launchers that transport, erect, and launch the missiles from canisters. The function of the canister is to protect the missile from damage during storage, transport, andinstallation on the launcher, transportation on the launcher in field environments, and missile launch. Key design requirements for the canister include lightweighting for mobility and transportability, severe acceleration loads, thermal loads, ballisticimpact resistance to small arms fire, corrosion-resistance, and low cost production and system life cycle cost. The lightweighting and corrosion-resistant design requirements suggest composite materials and low cost composite manufacturing processes as thedesign solution. Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC) structural materials, consisting typically of glass or carbon fiber reinforcements in a polymer matrix resin, provide the desired performance attributes for this missile launch canister design solution. VSystem Composites, Inc. will use its high performance vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (HyPerVARTM) composite structure manufacturing process and its high performance sandwich core construction (HyPerCore) structural design concepts to provide lowcost, lightweight PMC structures with the attributes necessary to meet the missile launch canister design requirements. A program is proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of the HyPerVARTM