Solid Rocket Motors for High Performance Interceptors

The advent of hypersonic attacks is pushing the current limits of the United States’ anti-missile defense system, Aegis. In the time required by Aegis to launch a counter attack, a hypersonic threat would already have flown such that an interceptor missile could not catch up. To resolve this challenge, Advanced Cooling Technologies (ACT) is collaborating with The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) to develop an advanced solid rocket motor technology for high-performance, compact interceptors. To this end, ACT and PSU will design a highly loaded solid rocket motor packed with high density energetic materials capable of producing a specific impulse of at least 280 seconds. Also, packing more propellant relative to the inert mass will enable a total impulse 20% higher than what is currently achieved by conventional rocket motors. The Phase I effort will conduct a proof-of-concept study of notional propellant grains and provide predictions of their technical performance, including maximum thrust and specific impulse. The propellant will also be evaluated for multiple-pulse operations. Approved for Public Release | 20-MDA-10643 (3 Dec 20)