ICBM DEEP BASING SHOCK ISOLATION SYSTEM DEFINITION FOR MISSILE TRANSPORTER/LAUNCHER STORAGE

PREVIOUS STUDIES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS EFFECTS ON ICBM LAUNCH SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN LARGELY CONFINED TO CONSIDERATIONS OF SURFACE OR CONVENTIONAL SILO BASING. THE DEEP BASE CONCEPT DISTINCTLY ALTERS THE SHOCK PULSE INPUT TO THE LAUNCHER FROM THAT EXPECTED ON CONVENTIONAL SYSTEMS, ALLOWING ENTIRELY NEW AND UNIQUE CONCEPTS OF SHOCK ISOLATION TO BE INTRODUCED. THE EFFORT DESCRIBED WITHIN THIS PROPOSAL CONSISTS OF UTILIZING AN EXISTING MULTIPURPOSE COMPUTER MODEL TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF SHOCK PULSES ON A RIGID BODY MASS MODEL OF THE MISSILE TRANSPORTER/LAUNCHER. THE COMPUTER PROGRAM HAS THE ABILITY TO SUBJECT THE MODEL TO THE PULSE FIELDS TYPICAL OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, AS WELL AS TO STUDY ISOLATION CONCEPTS UTILIZING ESSENTIALLY NON-LINEAR SPRING AND DAMPING ELEMENTS. THE COMPUTER MODEL HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY USED TO STUDY THE EFFECTS OF CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS EFFECTS ON SURFACE AND SEABASED WEAPON SYSTEMS, WITH PERFORMANCE VERIFIED BY FULL SCALE TESTING. THE ANALYSIS WILL YIELD AN ISOLATION SYSTEM CONCEPT ALLOWING MAXIMUM PULSE ATTENUATION WITH MINIMUM RATTLESPACE AND ENVELOPE, PLUS PRESENT PARAMETRIC DESIGN DATA ON ISOLATOR CONCEPTS. A DESIGN AND TEST PROGRAM IS DESCRIBED TO ALLOW CONCEPT VERIFICATION AT LOW COST.