Safety and Arming Device Design Principles

Abstract

This report documents the principles that have been used by fuze designers at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif., for over 30 years in the creation of safety devices for warheads in missiles and free fall weapons. The underlying philosophy in implementing safety and arming (S&A) device design safety requirements is very conservative. This approach is dictated by two factors: (1) the extremely severe consequences associated with safety failures; and (2) the difficulties in determining with adequate confidence what the safety failure rate is for any given system while considering all possible manufacture to target scenarios up to, and including, accidents and combat. This report describes the most sound methodology to approach the design of an S&A device that meets as closely as possible the requirements for safety and reliability.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA363924

Entities

People

  • Steven E. Fowler

Organizations

  • Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter IED
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arming Devices
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Engineers
  • Explosive Devices
  • Explosive Trains
  • Explosives
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Guidance Computers
  • Guided Missiles
  • Munitions
  • Plastic Bonded Explosives
  • Precision-Guided Munitions
  • Reliability
  • Safety
  • Test And Evaluation

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Munitions and Ordnance Engineering
  • Systems Analysis and Design