Small-to-Medium Range Battlefield Advantage with Versatile, Next Generation Solid/Liquid Detonation Propulsion Systems

High-speed, short and medium range missiles rely upon mature combustor technology with limited room for continued performance or efficiency gains. This proposal presents a new paradigm of solid/liquid propulsion system, the rotating detonating engine (RDE), that has the ability to significantly boost power output, performance, and fuel efficiency. The proposal team will build on current early R&D on solid/liquid RDE technology. RDEs for missile propulsion systems will enable future cost-effective weapon platforms to have significantly longer range, higher speeds, and smaller sizes. Spectral Energies (SE) will develop a RDE combustor capable of being operated on liquid or solid fuel. Compared to previous weapon system combustors, the solid/liquid RDE combustor will be significantly smaller yet provide more power output for a given fuel mass.