Joint DOD/DOE Munitions Technology Development
Abstract
The mission of the Department of Defense (DoD)/Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Munitions Technology Development Program (JMP) is to develop new and innovative warhead, explosive, fuzing, and lifecycle technologies and tools to enable major improvements in conventional munitions. The JMP supports the development and exploration of advanced munitions concepts and enabling technologies that precede Service-specific system engineering. A Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1985 by DoD and DOE provides the basis for the cooperative effort and for cost-sharing the long-term commitment to this effort. The JMP funds budgeted in this justification are matched dollar for dollar by DOE funds. Through this interdepartmental cooperation, DoD’s relatively small investment leverages DOE’s substantial investments in intellectual capital and highly specialized skills, advanced scientific equipment and facilities, and computational tools not available within DoD. Under the auspices of the JMP, the integration of DOE technologies with Joint and Individual Services’ needs has provided major advances in warfighting capabilities over many years and continues to play a crucial role in the exploration, development, and transition of new technologies needed by the Services. The JMP seeks to develop technological advances in several munitions subject areas. These include: 1) improved modeling and simulation tools for munitions design and evaluation, including evaluation of vulnerability and the design of insensitive munitions (IM), 2) novel experimental techniques and material property databases to support modeling and simulation, 3) higher power and safer explosives and propellants, 4) miniaturized, lower-cost, and higher reliability fuzes, initiators, power systems, and sensors, 5) design tools to enable development of higher performance warheads and weapons, such as penetrators, that are hardened against high impact loads, and 6) tools to assess the health and reliability of the munitions stockpile and predict lifetimes based on these assessments. The supporting experimental research requires the development of new technologies related to the synthesis, processing, and characterization of advanced munition materials, components, and systems. This involves energetic material research, new fuzing concepts, dynamic testing of munition materials, and advanced characterization including high-rate in-situ diagnostics. The JMP is aligned with Department strategic plans and policies such as: • Munitions for contingency operations, particularly for the reduction of unintended collateral effects. • Reducing time and cost for acquisition of munitions. • Rapidly transitioning science and technology (S&T) to support the warfighter in today’s conflicts. • Establishing future core capabilities and maintaining our national S&T capabilities through joint investment and interagency cooperation and teaming. • Aiding in recruiting and retaining high-caliber scientists and engineers at DoD S&T organizations. • Developing advanced munitions technologies to support the increased role of conventional weapons to deter and respond to non-nuclear attack, as described in the Nuclear Posture Review report. • Developing safer munitions that are compliant with IM standards to meet statutory and Department policy requirements. The JMP has established a successful collaborative community of DoD and DOE scientists and engineers. This community develops technologies of interest to both Departments within a structured framework of technical reviews and scheduled milestones. The JMP is administered and monitored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and reviewed annually by the Munitions Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), which is comprised of over 25 senior executives from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Special Operations Command, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, OSD, and DOE. Projects are organized in eight Technology Coordinating Groups (TCG) that bring together the disciplines necessary to properly evaluate technical content, relevance, and progress. The TCGs conduct semi-annual technical peer reviews of JMP projects and plans. DoD Service laboratory technical experts lead each of the TCGs to ensure that the technologies under development address high-priority DoD needs. The JMP also promotes more in-depth technical exchange via short-term visiting scientist and engineer assignments at both the DOE and the DoD laboratories. The JMP has a long history of successful transitions and significant Return on Investment (ROI). • The JMP is the primary developer of high-performance structural mechanics computer codes used by DoD, and the primary source for transitioning these codes to the DoD. JMP computational tools are critical to the development and support of DoD programs; a recent tabulation shows that well over 50 DoD programs have been supported by these DOE codes. For FY 2014 it is projected by the High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) that JMP-supported codes will have accounted for 82 percent of all HPCMP Central Processing Unit (CPU) hours, including virtually all HPCMP classified computing. The total CPU hours represents an eight-fold increase from FY 2012. The Department expects this heavy reliance on DOE codes to continue for several reasons, including: preference for using DOE codes because they are export-controlled; DOE codes are scalable, incorporate multiphysics, and run on massively parallel computer systems; and the Department can obtain source codes to modify for individual Service needs. - A significant number of defense industrial contractors also use the DOE structural mechanics computer codes. - CHEETAH, a standalone thermochemical computer code, is the most widely used code by DoD and defense contractors for predicting performance of energetic materials. - The Army Armament Research, Development & Engineering Center (ARDEC) has stated that the DOE computer codes are now routinely used to design all new warheads. The use of these tools has reduced the number of validation tests required for each new warhead from about five to one with concomitant cost and time savings. - The Army Research Laboratory has used DOE computer codes to develop and deploy new armor solutions to Iraq and Afghanistan with unprecedented speed. • New munitions’ case material and explosive fill technologies provide the warfighter with a lethal and low collateral damage capability. These technologies have been transitioned to the Focused Lethality Munition variant of the Small Diameter Bomb, which is currently fielded. The technologies were also the basis for a new GBU 129 weapon that has been developed to meet a Joint Urgent Operational Need requirement for a low-collateral MK-82 class weapon. The GBU-129/B received the 2014 William J. Perry Award from the Precision Strike Association, recognizing significant contributions to the development, introduction, or support of precision strike systems. • The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) has supported applications of JMP technologies, including: compact synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems for counter-Improvised Explosive Device (IED) efforts; pre-deployment training of military personnel by DOE explosive experts on how to recognize feed stocks and processes for homemade explosives; and use of massively parallel, multiphysics computer codes to understand how explosive blast waves cause brain injury and how to mitigate these injuries. • The JMP-supported CTH and Sierra codes were used for the Air Force Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) Quick Reaction Effort (QRC), and the Air Force Research Laboratory Conventional Survivable Ordnance Package (CSOP). • An erosive initiator technology developed under the JMP has been transitioned to the Services for use in selectable output weapons and self-destruct capabilities. • A novel approach to controlling the sensitivity and therefore the initiability of explosives using microwave energy, as well two new, insensitive energetic materials have transitioned to development projects in the Joint IM Technology and Joint Fuze Technology Programs. • Reliability analysis tools were used by Army Missile Command to assess Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM), and Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire command data-linked guided Missile (TOW). • Robotic demilitarization processing systems were installed at several locations, including a system at Hawthorne Army Depot to recover copper shape charge liners, Comp A5, and grenade bodies. • Characterization and analysis of the Army’s Excalibur fusible plug resulted in a savings of at least $2.000 million. The JMP also works with the Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC) and the National Armaments Consortium (NAC) of industrial suppliers to equitably and efficiently transition JMP technologies to defense industrial contractors. In addition to the computer codes mentioned earlier, the JMP has transitioned case technology for low-collateral weapons, low-temperature co-fired ceramic technology for smaller, less expensive fuze electronic components, and erosive initiator technology for selectable effects weapons to defense industrial suppliers. The integrated DoD and DOE efforts within the JMP are transitioning new munitions’ technologies to the Department and the defense industrial base through the advanced development process. The JMP is a focal point for collaborative work by nearly 300 DoD and DOE scientists and engineers. Technical leaders from both Departments consider the JMP a model of cooperation, both within their respective departments and between departments. The highly challenging technical objectives of the 33 current JMP projects require multi-year efforts and sustained, long-term investments to achieve success. The JMP projects are divided into five technical focus areas: 1) Computational Mechanics and Material Modeling, 2) Energetic Materials, 3) Initiators, Fuzes, and Sensors, 4) Warhead and Penetration Technology, and 5) Munitions Lifecycle Technologies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- R2 Budgetary Justification
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 0603225D8Z_3_0400_PB_2016
- Change Summary Explanation
- Funding decreases were used to pay for higher priority DoD Bills.
- Service Agency Name
- Office of the Secretary Of Defense
Entities
Organizations
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
Related Documents
- Child Project: Joint DOD/DOE Munitions
- Child Accomplishment: Computational Mechanics and Material Modeling
- Child Accomplishment: Energetic Materials (EM)
- Child Accomplishment: Initiators, Fuzes, and Sensors
- Child Accomplishment: Warhead and Penetration Technology
- Child Accomplishment: Munitions Lifecycle Technologies