High Velocity Gun-Launched Projectile and Sabot Structures

The U.S. military is increasingly focused on long-range warfare by delivering time-critical hypersonic gun-launched guided projectiles to support our troops at ranges of 100-250nm with the ultimate goal of removing troops completely from harm’s way. In support of those goals, Simulations, LLC has engineered a baseline large caliber hypersonic projectile (HSP) with an integrated lightweight composite sabot that can achieve Mach 6+ when launched at 50 kGees from a conventional powder gun, survive a bore pressure of 100ksi, and do so in a 105mm or larger bore diameter gun. In this approach, Simulations incorporated their proven composite sabot technology currently launching the U.S. Navy Hypervelocity Projectile (HVP) and shall transition that knowledge to this next generation OSD effort. Simulations shall apply their leading-edge high-compressive strength composites to the projectile aeroshell itself that will significantly lower parasitic mass, drastically increase compression strength, decrease lateral deflections during balloting loads, enable a more stable static margin due to the aft having a much lower density, and increase internal volume to house additional avionics, payload, and larger actuation devices. This HSP approach is derived from similar proven outer mold lines, proven composite sabots, proven control surfaces, and proven interfacing technologies. The fully integrated composite sabot will consist of simplified methods to initiate sabot discard, optimized geometries to remove excess features and material volume, a robust fiber-resin architecture durable to survive the various demanding environments, and exploit Simulations low-cost efficient manufacturing method. This Mach 6+ achievement enables long-range precision that will greatly reduce threats to our troops and place them our of harm's way.