3D Printed Carbon/Carbon Aeroshell

Carbon/Carbon (C/C) Production capacity is a known limitation in the production of hypersonic intercept, decoy, and countermeasure solutions. This limitation results from three primary causes: Existing C/C suppliers are already saturated by manufacturing requirements for offensive weapon systems. Existing manufacturing techniques for C/C are inherently challenging to scale and control. Legacy C/C preform production methods result in unoptimized fiber directions that induce integration challenges and limit vehicle performance. C/C manufacturing issues already limit the ability of offensive hypersonic systems to reach the affordable capacity goals defined by the upper levels of the DoD, including the National Hypersonic Initiative. Simply put, relying on existing C/C manufacturing capabilities to produce a viable hypersonic defense capability against developing threats is not feasible. 3D Printing C/C brings the potential for inherent consistency and scalability by scaling machines rather than people. This is magnified by a lack of tooling that enables rapid start-up and low initial costs in development phases while enabling intricate components and fiber paths that can power next-generation hypersonic capabilities. Mantis Composites has developed C/C 3D Printing. However, three key hurtles remain to enable adoption of these capabilities onto next-generation intercept, decoy, and countermeasure solutions: Scale: Current ~12in tested capabilities are insufficient for construction of a flight system. Flight Testing: Although some relevant-environment ground testing has been performed on 3D-printed C/C, no ground-testing capability can replicate the full flight environment. Process Control: Although significant process control efforts have been made for previous phases of work, process control will become an increasingly important area of focus through the scaling, testing, and fielding process. The Phase II proposed here is aimed at specifically addressing the ōScaleö risk area presented here, with the following overarching technical objective: Scale 3D printed C/C capability to enable rapid, low-cost production of relevant-scale aeroshell components. This technical objective will be achieved by focusing development efforts on scaling equipment and processes that allow for much higher processing rates and scales than currently possible. This scaled equipment will be utilized to produce a series of scaled notional aeroshell components that contain features not currently possible to produce using existing manufacturing processes. Components will be scaled progressively, ending with a flight-capable article designed to be capable of future flight testing. A highly-parallelized technical development approach utilizes a large number of stand-in plastic printed test components to de-risk production approaches early and maintain program schedules. Approved for Public Release | 23-MDA-11635 (9 Nov 23)