Braden T. Lusk, Kyle A. Perry, and Joshua M. Hoffman
The blast mitigation properties of an Explosafe aluminium mesh product have been evaluated using scaled arena tests. The blast mitigation abilities of the aluminium mesh were characterized and several specific conclusions were drawn from the data. First, the aluminium mesh reduced free-field pressure and impulse increasingly as the number of layers of mesh was increased. Also, pressure reduction and impulse reduction displayed contradicting behaviours, thus a design trade-off exists between pressure reduction and impulse reduction. As scaled distance increases, impulse reduction increases while pressure reduction decreases. For 20 layers of mesh at scaled distance 7.6, the pressure and impulse reductions converge at approximately 28%. This is quite an impressive reduction for such a lightweight and easy to handle material. This design tool was created utilizing the first two test methods. These tests began to investigate a lightweight blast mitigation option for the field.
Mats G. Hartmann and Pernilla E. Magnusson
Vulnerability/lethality (V/L) tools used to assess weapons effects in targets often need some kind of rule to assess the status of each vital component being hit. The target functionality on a system level can then be decided based on which components are functional or non-functional (killed). Rules of this kind are often referred to as component kill criteria. Descriptions of component kill criteria and methods to assess them are rare in scientific journals, probably due to economic values, classified V/L tools, as well as classified input data to the tools. This paper presents the results from an experimental study of a target component, a relay, impacted by steel spheres and the component’s response to the impact. A first set of kill criteria based on impact energy and momentum are presented. Studies of the kind presented in this paper cannot be performed unless the component is cheap and readily available, conditions that many components in a military platform do not meet. For that reason and others discussed, methods and models for assessing component kill criteria should be derived from experimental studies on available components and then hopefully be sufficient also for component types that cannot be tested.
Mateusz Szala, Sebastian Grys, and Leszek Szymańczyk
New thermochemical code ZMWNI has been used to predict the performance of ten new high explosives such as derivatives of furazan, furoxan, and tetrazines oxides. Parameters such as velocity, pressure, and temperature of detonation were calculated and compared with literature data for respective compounds.
Ian D. Holland
The development of technologies that allow interoperable radios on a number of networked nodes for tactical scenarios has seen much interest in recent years. In particular, the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is one project aimed at designing interoperable tactical data links for a number of scenarios involving United States and coalition forces. The JTRS project was motivated by a number of factors concerning extant tactical data links. These factors include a lack of interoperability and the proprietary nature of the radios required, as well as the inability of such links to allow high-rate ad hoc networked communications in a highly mobile environment. It has been suggested that existing commercial off-the-shelf equipment could perhaps be used for tactical networking. Subsequently, in a previous paper by the author, preliminary results were presented for an example tactical networking scenario. In that paper, it was assumed that high-gain antennas could be used in such a way that they always provided maximum gain, irrespective of the locations of each node, and the types of antenna gain patterns that could be achieved with such antennas. Additionally, size, weight and power (SWAP) constraints were not considered. In this paper, SWAP constraints are considered in determining an example set of transmit power and antenna types to investigate the effects of such practical constraints on the data rates that could be achieved. Also, a single ground-reflector model is used for the wireless channel, instead of the line-of-sight only model assumed in the previous work. Results obtained by simulation of an adaptive orthogonal frequency division multiplexing scheme are provided for a range of possible asset separation distances. These results highlight both the effect of distance-dependent signal attenuation, and also antenna pointing mismatch. Such effects would need to be jointly considered when designing a high-rate tactical data network.
Anil Kumar Maini, Anandi Lal Verma, and Varsha Agrawal
Precision-guided munitions (PGM) play a pivotal role in modern warfare. As such it is important to carry out serviceability checks on critical electro-optical systems particularly those incorporated into precision-guided munitions, laser-warning systems and other military electro-optic systems. These test systems provide functionality checks on military electro-optic systems without the need to disassemble the device under test (DUT) or remove it from the platform. This paper presents new design concepts to build portable electro-optic simulators capable of generating battlefield laser threat signatures to carry out on-line functionality checks on laser sensors used in laser-warning systems and laser seekers in laser-guided munitions. These designs offer one or more advantages over similar commercially available devices and designs discussed in the literature. A prototype using the proposed concept was built and comprehensively evaluated by testing a commercial laser-seeker unit. Test results are presented in this paper.
Shristi D. Sinha and Pramod K. Sahoo
In a chaff missile engagement scenario the number of chaff elements or dipoles in the missile seeker radar resolution cell (RRC) changes dynamically. To capture this effect in simulation a technique is proposed in this paper to estimate the number of effective chaff dipoles. Estimation using this technique caters for the dynamically changing positions and dimensions of both the chaff cloud and the missile seeker RRC. This proposed technique is based upon the Monte-Carlo simulation method, and its validation has been completed by comparing the analytically computed and the estimated values for different geometric positions of the systems. A chaff missile engagement scenario has been simulated to show the application potential of this technique in estimating the chaff cloud radar cross section (RCS).
Melville A. Stanton, et al, Digitising Command and Control: A Human Factors and Ergonomics Analysis of Mission Planning and Battlespace Management , Ashgate Publishing Limited, Surrey UK, 2009.
