Advanced Tactical Sphere Brake

Sphere Brake Defense, LLC (SBD) proposes to demonstrate the performance and cost of replacing current brake systems installed on tactical vehicles with innovative, patented, spherical brake technology. Due to significant up-armoring and evolving mission capabilities for heavy tactical vehicles in austere operating environments, reliability, flexibility, and costs associated with unit readiness, maintenance and sustainment have been sacrificed. Specifically, total cost of ownership has skyrocketed for brake systems that wear at quintuple the rate. Current brakes installed on the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) 1.1 only last 500 miles. In this proposal, SBD will continue to advance the development of a new design of a pneumatic brake system, called a sphere brake for tactical vehicles, with better technical characteristics and functional abilities in comparison with existing disc and drum brake designs. Using validated learning through the build-measure-learn feedback loop and Agile integration, SBD has rapidly developed prototypes that have been demonstrated in the lab and field environment. Phase II will consist of dyno testing, track testing, and field testing maturing the TRL and MRL of SBD to 7 over a base and 2 option periods of performance.