Weapons and Munitions - Eng Dev

Abstract

This program element funds multiple efforts for engineering development of weapons and munitions systems. Project 613: The High Explosive Guided Mortar (HEGM) project funds engineering development of precision guidance systems applicable to Indirect Fire mortar weapon systems. HEGM provides a precision capability to support the close fight in urban and complex terrain, while at the same time, reducing collateral damage. HEGM provides precision accuracy and effectiveness for 120mm mortar systems using precision guidance systems that will effectively reduce target delivery error. The HEGM capability will be developed through the use of improved guidance and control components and advanced airframe design that allow sufficient maneuver of the cartridge in flight to correct for induced error providing the ability to engage targets without the need to adjust fire. FY 2018 funding will support the continuation of the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase; activities will include Preliminary Design Review (PDR), award of follow on developmental efforts, and initiation of detailed design phase. The Weaponized Universal Lightweight Fire-control (WULF) project funds engineering development of fire-control systems applicable to Indirect Fire mortar weapon systems. WULF is a digital sight integrated with digital fire-control that is designed for aiming of the M252 81mm mortar system and other man portable mortar systems (60mm and 120mm). The digital sight unit and Fire Control will allow the Soldier to emplace the mortar systems faster and fire more accurately. WULF will improve the accuracy of the M252 mortar. FY 2018 funding will support the continuation of the EMD phase; activities will include Critical Design Review (CDR), engineering development, and software refinement of matured prototype to support the off Line-Replacement-Unit Environmental test and Software Development Engineering testing. Project EC1: The Target Practice Day Night Thermal (TP-DNT) cartridges are 40mm grenade training cartridges. The Low Velocity (LV) variant is for training with the M203/M320 grenade launchers; the High Velocity (HV) variant is for training with the Mk19 grenade machine gun. Both cartridges will provide the Warfighter with a non-dud producing, environmentally friendly training cartridge that provides a visual impact signature seen day or night, by the naked eye, through night vision devices, and thermal weapon sights. These cartridges will replace the 40mm M781 LV Target Practice and the 40mm M918/M385A1 (Mixed Belt) HV Target Practice. It is expected that the unit price for high velocity cartridges will be lower than the Mixed Belt cartridges. Project EC4: This project will standardize various pyrotechnics that simulate battlefield effects. The Army's Combat Training Centers (CTCs) are currently using non-standard munitions to replicate both conventional and asymmetric warfare battlefield effects. These modified commercial-off-the-shelf products have not been type classified, material released, and are not safe or sustainable for use by Soldiers. This effort will develop and demonstrate various pyrotechnics/simulators to replicate both conventional and asymmetric warfare battlefield affects such as: Black smoke signature (burning vehicles, buildings, and equipment); Yellow smoke signature (chemical, biological or nuclear effects); Macro pyrotechnics to simulate hostile fire and small Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) during mounted operations in urban terrain; Micro pyrotechnics to simulate indoor hostile fire and IED effects that are capable of being integrated into existing facilities; Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) on a wire to replicate the flight of a Rocket Propelled Grenade; High Order Blast Effect (HOBE) used to replicate a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED), building explosions, and other significant explosive events; Artillery airburst (LA45) simulator to replicate indirect fire; simulator to replicate a STINGER (LA47) firing; Tracer Fire-back simulator to replicate enemy small arms fire and anti-aircraft fire. Standardization will reduce training costs, eliminate redundancies between systems, mitigate environmental concerns and safety risks associated with realistic scenario based training. Project ED7: The Advanced Multi Purpose (AMP) program is a direct fire line of sight 120mm large caliber munition under development for the Abrams Main Battle Tank. It has three modes of operation including point detonate, point detonate delay and airburst. AMP is the material solution for breaching double reinforced concrete walls and defeating Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) teams from 50m to 2000m (T) and 50m to 4500m (O), a validated gap that cannot currently be met with existing stockpiled ammunition. In addition to added capability, AMP will also consolidate the capabilities of four existing stockpiled 120mm munitions, thereby addressing the users' battlecarry dilemma by allowing them to load a single munition that is capable of defeating multiple targets including ATGM teams, reinforced walls, personnel, light armor, bunkers, and obstacles. The full performance of the AMP is obtained with an Abrams equipped Ammunition Data Link breech modification, the same required by the 120mm M829A4 cartridge that achieved Milestone C in FY 2014 and achieved Full Materiel Release in FY 2015. FY 2018 will support continuation of the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) Phase 2 which will include safety and performance testing and the manufacturing and procurement of cartridges for the third Cartridge Integration Test. FY 2018 will also support the Critical Design Review (CDR) and initiation of the Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) cartridge build. Evaluate the scalability for future combat platforms. Project EL9: This project supports the future force by improving the distribution, management, reliability and survivability of ammunition through the advanced development, integration, and demonstration of logistics system enablers. These enablers will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ammunition operations, to include retrograde, while reducing the logistics footprint on the battlefield. Technology areas addressed include handling, distribution, and management (strategic and tactical), prognostics, diagnostics, and asset visibility, explosives safety, and adaptive and environmentally friendly packaging and palletization. The efficient deployment and sustainment of reliable ammunition is vital to success on the battlefield. This project enhances the operational effectiveness of the ammunition logistics system to ensure the distribution of reliable ammunition to the warfighter. FY2018 funding will support the integration of the munitions health monitoring system with developmental ammunition items and be used to conduct qualification tests and integrate passive time/temperature exposure sensor with developmental ammunition items and conduct qualification testing. Project EP2: The interim solution to the Individual Assault Munition (IAM) will be a lightweight shoulder launched munition (SLM) capability for combat units at the individual Soldier level. As an improvement over existing SLM, the interim solution will allow Soldiers to conduct Urban Operations with an ability to defeat the enemy protected by a variety of field expedient, structural and lightly armored vehicles. This interim solution will be effective day or night at close ranges with an ability to safely engage targets from within enclosures using single hearing protection. This interim solution will combine the capability of multiple existing SLM which will allow for reduced Soldier load, training complexity and logistics burden for Light Infantry, Combat Engineers and Special Operations Forces. Project EP4: The One Way Luminescence (OWL) program is a critical technology development in response to the 7.62mm and 5.56mm Families of Ammunition Capabilities Development Documents (CDD). Current small caliber ammunition tracer rounds are a pyrotechnic tracer mix which allows enemy forces to see the trace round and track its trajectory back to the shooter. OWL program’s objective is to develop and field a full day/night tracer round, replace the current pyrotechnic cartridges with trace cartridges that are only visible to the shooter and soldiers in close proximity, increasing soldier survivability. 7.62mm is the immediate focus followed by 5.56mm OWL cartridges and later followed by 0.50 Caliber cartridges. FY 2018 funding will support post Milestone B (MS B) activities to include Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD). Project EP5: The Advanced Armor-Piercing (ADVAP) program is a critical technology development in response to the 7.62mm and 5.56mm Family of Ammunition Capabilities Development Documents (CDD). The nomenclature for the 7.62mm ADVAP is now XM1158 and the companion trace is XM1159. The overall objective of the ADVAP program is to develop and Full Materiel Release (FMR) a 7.62mm XM1158 cartridge linked 4:1 with a trace cartridge (XM1159) followed by a 5.56mm cartridge variant that will provide overmatch capability to defeat advanced light armored threats within typical machine gun ranges. The 7.62mm XM1158 and XM1159 cartridges will be optimized for use in the M240 Machine Gun. FY 2018 funding supports Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) efforts to include maturing manufacturing as well as optimization of the XM1158 and XM1159 cartridge designs. Project EP6: The Lightweight Small Caliber Ammunition (LSCA) program is a critical technology development in response to the 7.62mm Capabilities Development Documents (CDD). The goal of the LSCA Program is to reduce the Soldier load through reduction in ammunition weight. The LSCA Program will develop and field 7.62mm LSCA cartridges that will provide the same capabilities as the M80A1 and M62A1 cartridges. The LSCA cartridge will be designed to be compatible with all Army 7.62mm weapon systems, but specifically optimized to work in the M240 Machine Gun. Follow-on effort to reduce the weight on the .50 Cal starts in FY 2022. Project EP7: This project will support Integrated System Design (ISD), System Capability (SC) and Manufacturing Process Demonstrations (MPD) on current pyrotechnic munitions and tunable pyrotechnic aircraft counter measures and decoys. The project will also support ISD, SC and MPD on new expendable countermeasure munitions that will protect Army aircraft from advanced and current guided missile threats. Activities include modeling and simulation, flight testing, qualification testing, engineering to reduce size and weight, environmental considerations, safety enhancements, manufacturing enhancements, qualification of other service and foreign munitions that could meet current requirements, product improvements, insertion of new technologies to increase performance, and enhancement of current flare solutions for new and existing aircraft. Systems include impulse cartridges, pen flares, hand held signals, trip flares, simulators, marine markers, smoke pots, smoke grenades, rail road flares and other type of emergency/distress devices, aircraft expendables (to include Radio Frequency (RF) expendables), and primers used in munitions systems. Project EU4: The 40mm Improved High Explosive Dual Purpose (I-HEDP) is a new capability identified as a Warfighter requirement in the 40mm High Velocity I-HEDP Capability Development Document. The I-HEDP tactical cartridge provides the warfighter with the ability of achieving the required lethal effects against enemy personnel in the open, and to defeat personnel targets in defilade position. Additionally, the I-HEDP cartridge will be able to defeat unarmored and lightly armored vehicles. FY 2018 dollars support the development of the request for proposal, Bid Sample planning and testing, initiation of technical design, and programmatic oversight activities. Project EU7: The Enhanced Lethality Cannon Munitions (ELCM) project will evaluate, develop and qualify new lethality technologies for 155mm cannon artillery munitions and evaluate their effectiveness in mitigating evolving and derived capability gaps, and support transition to production. The ELCM project will support testing of the Israeli Military Industries (IMI) Systems M999 advanced cluster munition, per HQDA G-8 Directed Requirement for a Rapid Bridging Solution for the 155mm Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition 22 December 2016. The project will complete a safety and performance evaluation of the M999 munition in currently fielded U.S. Army 155mm cannon artillery weapon systems (M777A2, M109A6) and integration of the M999 into US Army fire control software systems. The ELCM project will accelerate the qualification of Lithographic Fragmentation Technology (LFT) on the 155mm XM1128 high explosive projectile, per HQDA G-8 Directed Requirement for a Rapid Bridging Solution for the 155mm Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition 22 December 2016. The project addresses requirements for increased lethality of 155mm high explosive unitary projectiles (Initial Draft Requirements for the XM1128 with Lithographic Fragmentation Technology, 24 February 2017). FY 2018 funding will support the completion of the Fire Control Integration (FCI) for the M999, the acceleration and initiation of Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) of the XM1128 LFT, and the completion of XM1128 LFT EMD prototyping to begin Production Qualification Testing (PQT) series. Project EU8: The Improved Multi-Option Fuze project will integrate the results of BA4 PE 0603639A Project EU2 and qualify/Type Classify (TC) new improved Multi-Option Fuzes (iMOFA/iMOFM) with Government-owned Next Generation Proximity Sensor (NGPS) capabilities containing built-in exportability attributes previously matured via OSD-sponsored techbase efforts under the Joint Fuze Technology Program and Defense Exportability Features (DEF) Congressional Pilot Program. Continuing FMS sales of non-precision artillery and mortar ammunition fuzes containing proximity technology will increase the incidence of reverse engineering (RE) and threat of electronic countermeasures (ECM). If realized, these threats will negate the current battlefield advantages of U.S. troops. The pending policy-driven loss of Cannon DPICM will further increase the importance of NGPS / Height of Burst fuzing capabilities to efficiently engage enemy target sets. This project will develop and qualify safe, affordable, reliable Proximity/HoB fuzing solution for non- precision Cannon artillery and Mortar munitions that are resistant to adversary exploitation via ECM and RE threats. FY 2018 funding will support the preparation and award of the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract, and support the design, development, and fabrication of initial improved Multi-option fuzes for follow-on engineering tests and qualification of a new iMOFA/iMOFM TDP based on Government-owned Next Generation Proximity Sensor (NGPS) with Built-In HOBF DEF technology. Project EW1: High Explosive Air Burst (HEAB) is a new capability identified as a Warfighter requirement in the Capability Development Document (CDD), 40mm Low Velocity (LV) Family of Ammunition Annex. The 40mm LV HEAB tactical cartridge allows the warfighter to effectively engage targets at increased ranges using the 40mm M203/M320 Grenade Launchers. The HEAB cartridge provides the grenadier with a higher probability of achieving a first shot kill against enemy personnel, coupled with the ability to defeat personnel targets in defilade positions at increased ranges with greater accuracy and lethality. When deployed against point and area targets, the cartridge inflicts incapacitating effects against personnel at increased ranges beyond those offered by the current M433 High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP) cartridge. The cartridge provides lethal effects against targets with improved accuracy and greater standoff ranges increasing Soldier Survivability. FY 2018 supports Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) effort for competing prototypes and initiates EMD design activities. The 40mm Low Velocity (LV) Door Breach (DB), XM1167, cartridge allows the grenadier to conduct a ballistic breach of an existing door creating an entry point into a building or other structure. This capability is critical during Urban Operations, all while having stand-off ability to conduct ballistic breach at ranges up to 50 meters away, with a single-shot, and without pause between actual breach and entry of initial force. The 40mm DB cartridge will provide the small unit with the capability to conduct breaching operations; allowing the Warfighter to create an entry point in a structure allowing an assault element to enter and begin clearing operations, which is the most difficult type of operation that Soldiers may face in an urban environment. The 40mm DB cartridge will reduce collateral damage and friendly casualties associated with breaching operations. The deployment of 40mm DB cartridges will enable the small unit to gain and maintain a tactical advantage through efficiency of combat power and momentum. FY 2018 supports Milestone B approval, Source Selection Planning and Evaluation, Government Technical Development, Bid Sample Testing, and EMD Award. Project FA6: The 30mm Lethality program funds development of a suite of 30x173mm caliber cartridges, which includes anti-personnel tactical and training cartridges and anti-materiel tactical and training cartridges. The objective is to enhance the operational effectiveness and lethality of the Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) and any Army Fighting Vehicles that are equipped with a 30x173mm weapon system. The tactical cartridges will provide an organic direct fire capability to support infantry at a greater range and will improve lethality when engaging dismounted infantry and like armored vehicles. The training cartridges will be ballistically matched to the tactical cartridges, allowing the Warfighter to train in a cost effective manner. This program will leverage earlier efforts in support of the Stryker Operational Needs Statement for Increased Lethality. FY 2018 funding will support ammunition qualification activities and development of performance specifications. FY 2018 effort also includes preparation activities for developing/qualifying a 30x173mm Programmable Airburst Munition (PABM) for production. The objective is to field airburst capable 30x173mm cartridges and programming/communication units for use in Stryker ICV and/or Army Future Fighting Vehicles. Project S36: The Precision Guidance Kit (PGK) is a Global Positioning System guidance kit with fuzing functions. PGK provides near precision accuracy and effectiveness for 155mm High Explosive artillery projectiles. PGK improves the accuracy of existing artillery ammunition by correcting the trajectory of projectiles to their designated target location. Precision guidance systems effectively reduce target delivery error. On going development addresses performance in GPS degraded environments as well as compatibility with the Army's new long range cannon and projectiles which will be fielded during the PGK Life Cycle. FY 2018 funding will support design maturation of a PGK and a key GPS subsystem, execution of PGK anti-jam concept and subsystem development and maturation, and perform System Design Review as an entry point into Prototype development and testing.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2018
• Source ID: 0604802A_5_2040_PB_2018
• Service Agency Name: Army

Entities

Organizations

• United States Army

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Human Systems
• Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Armored Vehicles
• Artillery Ammunition
• Asymmetric Warfare
• Electronic Countermeasures
• Enemy Personnel
• Explosive Devices
• Explosives
• Fire Control Systems
• High Explosive Ammunition
• High Explosives
• Munitions
• Munitions Testing
• Performance Tests
• Projectiles
• Test And Evaluation
• Warfare
• Weapons Effects

Fields of Study

• Engineering

Readers

• Munitions and Ordnance Engineering

Technology Areas

• Microelectronics
• Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems
• Space