Attribution and Retaliation: Pultruded Graphite, Boron, & Tungsten Hybrid Composites for Advanced Penetrators

KaZaK Composites Incorporated (KCI) proposes to design and demonstrate a pultrusion-based manufacturing process for fabricating large tungsten or hybrid multi-material penetrators, in which individual heavy metal rods or wires are bonded togetherchemically and reinforced in axial and/or circumferential directions using high strength/stiffness fibers. These rod or fiber composites may be applied as reinforcements to a homogeneous steel penetrator or may be formulated to achieve operationalobjectives as completely composite constructions. A wide variety of solid and hollow cross sections may be fabricated in this fashion. The principal objective here will be to optimize the cost/size tradeoff for high performance penetrators, by using thelowest cost metal forms and combining them via methods derived from polymer composite manufacturing. Some reduction in density and possibly other performance measures may result as compared to homogeneous tungsten projectiles. The cost advantages ofusing tungsten forms available in commercial quantities as the feedstock for ordnance developments will however lead to substantial operational performance advantages over steel penetrators. Continuously bonded lengths of tungsten wire or rod mayadvantageously be separated in the endgame trajectory to enhance weapon lethality. The addition of boron and/or graphite fibers may also expand the velocity/obliquity envelope that may be tolerated. Two principal operational benefits will result fromthis development effort. The first of these is the low-cost availability of large-scale heavy metal product for military or civil applications. The second primary benefit is the enabling of new classes of penetrating weapons having a tungsten core andgraphite composite sheath to expand the weight - length envelope and improve weight-specific penetrating performance of long rod projectiles. These benefits will be most compelling for military applications initially, but may expand in scope to industrialor resource-exploration applications of tungsten.