Agent Defeat Weapon
Agent Defeat Warhead (ADW)
Operation Desert Storm highlighted the need for pre-emptive strike capability to disable chemical and biological (CB) agent munition production facilities and stockpiles. Currently the United States must resort to conventional warheads as the only means of crippling the enemy CB agent capability. Use of explosives to destroy a CB agent production or storage bunker could result in the release of large quantities of lethal agents. Such agent releases can produce significant collateral casualities and destroy the local environment. In line with the latest national security directives (promoting non-lethal, disabling weapon technology development over current lethal nuclear and conventional weapon systems), new technologies must be investigated which can disable CB agent munition production facilities and stockpiles while minimizing collateral casualtites.
The specific objective of this program is to develop air-deliverable warhead technologies that deny an enemy the use of C/B weapons with minimal collateral damage (i.e., limit the mass of viable chemical or biological agent vented to the environment as a result of an attack on a chemical or biological agent product or storage facility). Denial of a facility may be more robust than defeat of the target contents (damaging target contents). It also provides an opportunity to meet the stringent collateral damage criteria. Under this effort, technologies will be identified and limited experimentation conducted to support development and demonstration in future munitions programs. Technologies identified during this effort will support agent defeat efforts, and hard target and small smart bomb visions. Technologies developed under this effort will support commercial developments in non-lethal, facility denial products and law enforcement.
The STOP munition is designed to puncture storage containers for chemical and biological agents. The weapon uses a Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser with about 4,000 titanium penetrating rods. Like other agent defeat weapons, the goal is to neutralise the chem-bio agents without dispersing them. It would disable a WMD storage or production site, without the risk disperse lethal agents over a large area posed by a blast weapon. The Air Force may have a limited number of agent defeat weapons by the end of 2002, and will be fielding the weapon in the February or March 2003 timeframe. The USAF expects to procure 250 units of the weapon over a very short acquisition program. The Air Force Research Laboratory began work on the project in 2001.
The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and US Navy are involved in an advanced concept technology demonstration of an 'agent defeat' weapon that uses a high-temperature incendiary 'thermo-corrosive' filling, along with penetrating rods. Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Indian Head has teamed with Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop a special warhead that will destroy biological and chemical manufacturing and storage facilities. The Agent Defeat Warhead project is one of the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) projects selected by the Department of Defense in March 2002. The ACTD program focuses on rapidly placing maturing technologies in the hands of war fighters.
The Navy's Agent Defeat ACTD will demonstrate a high temperature incendiary air-delivered weapon system to defeat chemical and biological manufacturing and storage facilities. This weapon system will be capable of destroying the chemical and biological agent at an extremely high rate due to the unique characteristics of the high temperature incendiary fill employed in the weapon. The fill produces a very intense heat source of long duration with low overpressure. This low overpressure performance will prevent the dispersal of chemical and biological agents. The fill also produces a disinfectant chlorine gas as a byproduct of the fill reaction that provides enhanced biological agent defeat.
The Navy's Agent Defeat delivery system will be either the BLU-116 penetrator with GBU-24 guidance system or the BLU-109 penetrator with JDAM guidance system. Either will be modified to contain the chemical and biological agent defeat payload. Bomblets containing explosively-backed copper plates initiated by a thermal detonator will also be incorporated into the warhead. The copper plates are dispersed at high velocity to create holes in chemical and biological tanks to facilitate their destruction. Both the fill and bomblets are dispersed by an expulsion charge within the target facility after the tail section is cut from the warhead. The sequence of the tail section cutting and component expulsion is triggered by a time-delay fuse. The Agent Defeat ACTD is a 30-month effort divided into three phases dedicated to the development, demonstration and assessment of this weapon system. The cooperative effort includes working with the U.S. Air Force Air Armament Center (AAC), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
The Air Force Agent Defeat Weapon Program was initiated in response to a Combat Air Force Mission Need Statement. The objective of the current Concept Exploration and Definition acquisition activity is to develop an agent defeat weapon to neutralize, destroy, or deny access or immobilize CW/ BW agents and their associated weapon and delivery systems. All agent defeat weapon concepts will minimize collateral damage and effects and be deliverable by current Air Force platforms. Key program accomplishments include forming an IPT structure, building a preliminary assessment framework, collecting weapon system concepts from industry and the DoD and DOE laboratories, construction of an empirical lethality model to determine the effectiveness of inventory and conceptual weapons systems against CW/ BW agents.
The Agent Defeat Warhead (ADW) Demonstration (ADWD) program objective is to develop and demonstrate a warhead with a payload specifically tailored for use against fixed ground targets associated with the development, production, and storage of chemical (C) agents, biological (B) agents, and CB weapons (CBW). The goal of this program is to develop, mature and demonstrate an agent defeat warhead design to the maximum extent commensurate with available program funding. Ideally the maturation and demonstration of the contractor's warhead design will progress through a comprehensive ground test program and culminate with a short flight test demonstration series. It is recognized, however, that the nature and extent of the test program will be dictated by program funding limitations, and the characteristics of the specific design proposed by the contractor (e.g., a simple warhead may be less costly to design, fabricate and test, than a more sophisticated design).
The US Air Force is conducting the Agent Defeat Weapon (ADW) program to develop the capability to destroy, neutralize, immobilize, or deny an adversary access to biological and chemical agents with little or no collateral damage. The effort is currently in concept exploration. Studies are being performed to identify and evaluate concepts to satisfy the mission need, with the goal of fielding an NBC specific strike capability. All concepts must comply with relevant arms control treaties. Analysis tools being developed to support ADW include Agent Release models, Internal Dispersion and Venting models, and a Lethality model to evaluate inventory and conceptual weapon effectiveness against NBC/M targets.
In 1999 Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions Directorate, Ordnance Division (AFRL/MNMI) initiated a two phase Agent Defeat Warhead Demonstration Program, that will be approximately 42-months in duration. The concurrent technical objectives of this program are to demonstrate a warhead with the ability to: a) disrupt the functioning of fixed ground targets associated with the development, production and storage of chemical (C) and/or biological (B) weapons (CBW); b) neutralize the maximum possible amount of CB agents residing within the target; and c) limit the potential for collateral damage (i.e., human casualties resulting from the unintentional release of CB agents beyond the confines of the target structure) by minimizing the amount of viable CB agents, which might be inadvertently expelled from the target as a consequence of warhead employment.
This development effort consists of the Phase I- Concept Development and Assessment, plus one optional phase. In Phase I the contractor shall fabricate a sufficient quantity of full scale warheads, based on the sponsor approved preliminary warhead design, to support the conduct of static test(s) designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the warhead against the relevant target category(s) that the contractor's ADW is designed to defeat.
Phase I consists of three basic tasks. During Task 1, Concept Evaluation and Selection, the contractor shall perform design trade excursions relative to his proposed Agent Defeat Warhead Baseline Design concept, as well as identify and evaluate other promising concepts. Based on the results of the warhead design trade study, the contractor shall then recommend a concept for sponsor approval. The contractor shall also identify the test methodology, metrics, and success criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the recommended concept for use during the remainder of the program.
Upon sponsor (i.e., the government program office) approval of the recommended concept, the contractor shall proceed with Task 2, Preliminary Design, where he shall develop a preliminary warhead design. The level of design detail achieved during Task 2 shall be sufficient to support the fabrication of the warheads to be tested during subsequent static effectiveness tests, and to accurately assess the technical risks associated with the ADW design. The contractor may conduct sub-scale testing as necessary, during Phase I to aid in the concept evaluation and to support Preliminary Design development. The contractor shall also develop a Master Test Plan Outline, which covers all testing proposed for Phases I and II.
During Task 3, Warhead Effectiveness Demonstration, the contractor shall fabricate full-scale warheads in quantities sufficient to support static lethality/effectiveness tests. The contractor shall then conduct full-scale effectiveness tests of statically emplaced warheads for various agent defeat target scenarios relevant to his ADW design. The contractor shall then evaluate the test results in accordance with the sponsor approved evaluation methodology, metrics, and success criteria. Subsequent to receipt of Government approval, the contractor shall then proceed with Phase II- Warhead Design and Test, which consists of Tasks 4 and 5.
Under Task 4, Detailed Design, the contractor shall accomplish the detailed design of the sponsor approved Preliminary Design inclusive of all components, subsystems and interfaces. The level of design maturation achieved for the warhead's fuze/weapon safety controller shall be tailored/limited to be commensurate with the ADWD program funding, but as a minimum, it shall be sufficient to facilitate the warhead tests conducted under Task 5.
Under Task 5, Fabrication and Test, the contractor shall fabricate test warheads in quantities sufficient to support the proposed Phase II test effort. The contractor shall then conduct tests of the warheads to demonstrate the survivability, functionality and effectiveness of the warhead when delivered against simulated CB targets.
The extent of the Phase II test effort shall be tailored/limited to be commensurate with the ADWD program funding. The contractor shall tailor the scope of his proposed design and test effort in the manner that he believes most appropriate to his proposed Baseline Design. If the proposed Phase II effort includes activities related to either the preparation for flight tests or the actual conduct of flight tests, then the contractor shall obtain Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO) approval prior to initiation of such activities. While inclusion of a flight test demonstration is considered potentially desirable, the contractor should not consider such tests a mandatory part of his proposed Phase II test effort.
The ADW shall, as a minimum, be effective against at least one of the following relevant fixed target categories: hardened chemical targets, soft chemical targets, hardened biological targets, or soft biological targets. Effectiveness shall be understood to be a measure of the warhead's ability to simultaneously disrupt the functioning of the target, neutralize the CB material within the target, and limit the potential for human casualties resulting from the unintended release of viable CB agents.
Candidate kill mechanisms for achieving the desired results include, but are not limited to, thermal effects derived from high temperature incendiary (HTI) materials, low blast fragmenting warheads or submunitions, neutralizing chemicals, and other mechanisms which may be identified during the ADWD program. The ability of the ADW to deny the enemy access and/or use of the target and/or its contents is considered desirable, but only as a fallout capability occurring in conjunction with disruption of the functioning of the target and neutralization of the CB material within the target. A hybrid warhead payload that employs a combination of the referenced kill mechanisms may be required to achieve program goals. Kill mechanisms that are not considered appropriate for the ADWD include those employing nuclear fissile material or radioisotopes.
The ADW shall, within acceptable tolerances, be designed to exhibit the same external dimensions and closely approximate the mass properties as those for the 2000-lb class BLU-109 warhead. The ADW shall be designed for physical and functional compatibility with the following Air Force guidance kits: GBU-24, GBU-27, AGM-130, and GBU-31 (JDAM). The intent is to allow those warhead delivery systems, when equipped with the ADW, to hold a wide variety of CBW targets at risk, thereby minimizing the additional cost and operational burdens required to realize such a capability. Accordingly, the ADW shall also be compatible with existing Air Force ground handling, storage, and transportation equipment used to handle the 2000-lb class warhead common to those delivery systems.
The Government is seeking a single warhead design that provides a robust agent defeat solution for all relevant target categories (i.e., hardened chemical targets, and/or soft chemical targets, and/or hardened biological targets, and/or soft biological targets). Robustness shall be understood to be a measure of the degree of warhead effectiveness. The goal of the ADWD program will be to demonstrate a warhead that is effective against both chemical and biological agents, and related hardware and/or munitions located within structures ranging from those classified as soft, above ground targets, to those classified as hardened underground targets. However, the Government may deem a technical approach, which addresses only one, or two, or three of the referenced target categories in a robust manner more acceptable, than an approach, which addresses all four target categories in a less robust fashion.
The design of the entire ADW, inclusive of all payloads, components, subsystems, and interfaces shall be the responsibility of the prime contractor. The external dimensions and mass properties of the ADW warhead shall be sufficiently close to those of the standard BLU-109 warhead, so as to ensure that when equipped with any of the guidance kits specified, it will meet all guidance kit and aircraft interface requirements, and provide the same release and free flight performance as does the BLU-109. The ADW shall be designed to survive and function properly under the range of impact conditions typically associated with the current GBU-24 A/B guidance kit. As a goal, the ADW concept should be scaleable to other warhead variants (e.g., variants of the BLU-116 (AUP), JAST, JASSM, and BLU-113).
The ADW shall be designed to minimize the number of sorties and weapons required to defeat the target. Therefore, ADW shall be designed as a stand-alone weapon that does not require pre-strike or post-strike delivery of a different type of weapon in order to defeat the target and/or insure the minimization of collateral damage.
As a goal, the ADW should be physically and functionally compatible with the following fuzes or variants thereof: a) Hard Target Smart Fuze, b) Joint Programmable Fuze, and c) Multiple Event Hard Target Fuze. If the Agent Defeat Warhead design employs an electronic fuze and/or electronic weapon safety controller, then it/they shall be designed to be compatible with a MIL-STD-1760 interface, such that the various related modes of the fuze and/or the weapon safety controller can be tested and programmed via the Common Munitions BIT/Reprogramming Equipment (CMBRE).
During the course of the design and test effort, the contractor shall consider the potential environmental impact associated with the fabrication and test of his Agent Defeat Warhead. Pursuant to federal statutes, the contractor shall minimize the use/selection of hazardous materials and processes utilizing hazardous material to avoid or minimize generation of hazardous wastes as identified in 40 CFR 261. If hazardous materials are utilized during the contract or would be required for the technology being developed, the contractor shall notify the sponsor. Additionally, the topic shall be discussed at the regular periodic program reviews. If hazardous materials are used or generated during the program, the contractor shall be responsible for the identification, generation, and submission to the appropriate environmental regulative authority of all technical data and documentation required to obtain approval for the use of hazardous material(s) in fabrication and/or testing of the Agent Defeat Warhead, or generation, or disposal of any associated hazardous wastes.
The contractor shall also be aware of, and bring to the immediate attention of the sponsor, any aspects of the ADW development and test effort that might potentially affect or be affected by international treaties related to chemical and/or biological materials (or their surrogates) or weapons, or related test facilities which simulate their production, storage, or test.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is developing weapon concept(s) to defeat enemy biological and chemical facilities without causing significant collateral effects (that is, without releasing live agents into air). DTRA has developed a group of high temperature incendiaries (HTI) that are efficient in killing dry spores when properly mixed. HTIs are shown to react from heat or shock inputs. In nominal weapon-target interaction configurations, both types of HTI reactions were shown to create enough mixing between HTI reaction products and dry spores to kill most of the spores.
All these point to a promising technology. However, for a weapon to be successful, it needs to be effective against a variety of targets in various adverse conditions, without causing undue collateral effects. There are different types of target structures (above-ground, cut-and-cover, or deeply buried), different types of agents (dry spores, vegetative cells, viruses, toxins, chemical agents), different types of containment of agents (plastic, steel, large, small), etc. Then there are uncertainties of target configuration (doors, windows, stand-alone containers, stacked containers, dividing walls), and issues of accuracy of weapon functioning, etc.
New and innovative technologies and approaches are desired to address these requirement. These might include new types of energetic materials that can create hostile environment (e.g. more caustic reaction products) to the agents effectively (e.g. effective mixing by tailored blasts or effective heat transfer by slower burning). These might include devising better ways of killing all agents mentioned above. Or, these might include designing effective weapon concepts against a variety of targets. These still might include creative approaches to efficiently validate the weapon concepts against a variety of parameters.
A successful proof-of-concept test of an agent defeat weapon will be conducted based on earlier efforts. Potential commercialization applications include environmental site remediation.
The overall objective of the Agent Defeat Technology Program is to develop and demonstrate warhead technology capable of destroying, disabling or denying use of chemical and biological (CB) agent munition production facilities and stockpiles with minimal collateral damage (minimal agent dispersion.) The ADWD program objective is to develop and demonstrate a warhead with a payload specifically tailored for use against fixed ground targets associated with the development, production, and storage of chemical (C) agents, biological (B) agents, and CB weapons (CBW).
The ADW shall, as a minimum, be effective against one of the following relevant target categories: hardened chemical targets, soft chemical targets, hardened biological targets, or soft biological targets. Effectiveness shall be understood to imply both the ability to achieve widespread physical damage within the target, and to limit collateral damage resulting from the unintended release of CB agents. Candidate kill mechanisms for achieving the desired results include, but are not limited to, thermal effects derived from high temperature incendiary (HTI) materials, low blast fragmenting warheads or submunitions, neutralizing chemicals, and other mechanisms which may be identified during the ADWD program. The ability of the ADW to deny the enemy access and/or use of the target and/or its contents is considered desirable, but only as a fallout capability occurring in conjunction with wide spread physical damage within the target structure. A hybrid warhead payload that employs a combination of the referenced kill mechanisms may be required to achieve program goals. Kill mechanisms that are not considered appropriate for the ADWD include those employing nuclear fizzle material or radioisotopes.
The ADW shall, within acceptable tolerances, be designed to same external dimensions and closely approximate the mass properties as those for the 2000-lb class BLU-109 warhead. The ADW shall be designed for physical and functional compatibility with the following Air Force guidance kits: GBU-24, GBU-27, AGM-130, and GBU-31 (JDAM). The intent is to allow those weapon delivery systems, when equipped with the ADW, to hold a wide variety of CBW targets at risk, thereby minimizing the additional cost and operational burdens required to realize such a capability. Accordingly, the ADW shall also be compatible with existing Air Force ground handling, storage, and transportation equipment used to handle the 2000-lb class warhead common to those delivery systems.
The Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions Directorate, Ordnance Division (AFRL/MNMI) did not receive an acceptable proposal for development of an Agent Defeat Warhead (ADW) Demonstration (ADWD). The closing date for proposals was 29 April 1999. The acquisition strategy for this program was subsequently reevaluated.
In October 2000 Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL -- Eglin Research Site awarded a contract to Titan Systems Corporation, Titan Research & Technology Division, the only known qualified source to perform the effort. Titan will provide pre- and post-test modeling and simulation using a proprietary version of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code MAZe for the unique Warhead Performance Measurement for Bio-Agent Defeat (WPM BAD) test series. In the early planning/design stages of the WPM BAD test series, under a previous contract, Titan used their proprietary version of MAZe to help design the sub-scale target. Some of this initial work included determining pressure and temperature profiles of the simulated target and determining the amount of agent vented from the target. This effort involves performing similar tasks at a higher level of accuracy.
Agent Defeat Soft Target Ordnance Package (ADSTOP)
In early 2000 the Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions Directorate, Ordnance Division (AFRL/MNMI) Eglin Research Site requested technical and cost proposals for development and demonstration of an Agent Defeat Soft Target Ordnance Package (ADSTOP). The ADSTOP program objective is to develop and flight demonstrate a payload specifically tailored for use against fixed soft targets associated with the development, production, and storage of chemical (C) agents, biological (B) agents, and CB weapons (CBW). The point of departure for the design, development and demonstration effort will be an ADSTOP warhead payload concept provided by the government. The contractor will develop a detailed ADSTOP payload design and evaluate existing tactical munitions dispensers (TMD) to determine which is the best candidate for delivery of the ADSTOP payload when used in conjunction with a Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) guidance kit. If the contractor determines that modification of the candidate TMD design is necessary in order to efficiently package and effectively dispense the ADSTOP warhead payload, then the contractor will also develop a design for the modifying the relevant TMD. This 24-month program consists of Phase I -- Warhead Design; plus one optional phase, Phase II -- Fabrication and Flight Test. During Phase I the contractor will perform component and system level preliminary engineering design trades and effectiveness analyses to identify a cost-effective ADSTOP warhead design that provides the best overall level of effectiveness against the ADSTOP target set. He will then develop detailed designs for the payload and, if necessary, the modified TMD. The contractor will also conduct ground tests of the all-up ADSTOP warhead and it components. Upon sponsor approval of the contractor's detailed design, and subsequent to receipt of the Government Procuring Contracting Officer's authorization, the contractor will proceed with Phase II. During Phase II, the contractor will fabricate and deliver full-scale warheads for use during Government conducted/contractor supported flight/effectiveness testing. WCMD guidance kits and empty TMD's will be provided as government furnished equipment. The ADSTOP contractor will be required to establish an Associate Contractor Agreement (ACA) with the WCMD prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Co. to ensure that the WCMD guidance kit and the ADSTOP warhead are physically and functionally compatible.
