Force Protection Applied Research

The Aircraft Technology activity develops technologies for reduced observables technology and enhanced capability of naval aviation aircraft platforms in terms of mission effectiveness, platform range, operational energy, expeditionary capability, responsiveness, survivability, observability, readiness, safety and life cycle cost. It also develops new Naval air vehicle concepts and high impact, saleable naval air vehicle technologies, such as - autonomous air vehicle command and control, helicopter and tilt rotor systems, aerodynamics, propulsion systems, materials, structures and flight controls for future and legacy air vehicles. The Sea-Based Aviation National Naval Responsibility (SBA NNR) Structures and Materials program will develop the next generation structural capability and material response science for aircraft technology in fixed and rotary wing, manned and unmanned airframe technology to achieve reduced weight, increased durability, strength, streamlined manufacturability, reduced life-cycle cost and maintenance/readiness gaps improvements. Program payoffs include increased availability/readiness, reduced sustainment requirements, fatigue/loads life enhancement, reduced weight and improved range, and advanced prognostics design tools. These efforts address unique attributes to propulsion, power and thermal management technologies for Naval Aviation, as well as those having higher importance to Naval Aviation and some that are more pervasive to all of military aviation. Related basic research efforts are addressed under 0601153N Defense Research Sciences.

Fleet Force Protection and Defense against Undersea Threats efforts include applied research for complementary sensor and processing technologies for platform protection. Current small platforms (surface, subsurface and airborne) have little to no situational awareness (SA) or self-protection against air, surface, and asymmetric threats. A goal of this activity is to provide these platforms with effective self-protection. The technology areas specific to platform protection will develop individual, multispectral electro-optical (EO), infrared (IR), radio frequency (RF), electro-magnetic (EM), visual and acoustic or chemical sensors/biosensors and associated processing. To defend platforms from current and advanced threats in at-sea littoral environments and in port, these technologies must improve multispectral detection and distribution of specific threat information.

Advanced Energetics efforts address technology development to provide substantial improvements in energetic material systems and subsystems, primarily in terms of performance, but also addressing safety, reliability, and affordability concerns. Goals include: advanced energetic materials for warheads, propellants, and reactive material based subsystems for both defensive and offensive applications. Efforts include: development of new fuels, oxidizers, explosive ingredients and formulations; and reliable simulation tools and diagnostics to develop and design superior-performance, and/or reduced-vulnerability systems tailored to specific warfighter missions.

Technology programs focused on providing technologically superior warfighting capabilities at reduced total ownership costs for surface and subsurface platforms through investments in applied research and advanced technology development of programs in: a) Power, Energy, Propulsion, Engineering and Design. This element also includes the National Naval Responsibility in Naval Engineering (NNR-NE). Specific research themes are: Power and Energy Technology: Efforts address electrical and auxiliary system and component technology to dramatically improve naval capabilities by providing energy and power resiliency through applied research into energy and power density, control, operating efficiency, operational endurance, recoverability from casualties, and design tools. A major investment focus is providing the power, energy, and thermal management required for directed energy weapons and advanced sensor systems on current and future surface combatants. Significant investments are also focused on improving the energy performance of unmanned systems for the next generation surface fleet, subsea and seabed warfare, and expeditionary forces wherein the limited availability of power and energy are critical. Platform Design and Engineering Technology: This research area seeks to further the applied physics and mathematics necessary to increase force effectiveness by improving platform hydrodynamics, platform structures, platform resiliency/ survivability, autonomy, and enabling digital technologies needed to improve naval warfighting capabilities as they relate to platforms/capabilities for use in expeditionary, surface and subsurface warfare. - Hydrodynamics: Critical design for naval platform hydrodynamics that is focused on the applied sciences, computation, laboratory experiments, and at-sea experimentation to develop the understanding and prediction capabilities for all hydrodynamic phenomena associated with naval sea-going platforms including, surface ships, submarines, unmanned vessels and manned small craft. Key research goals are to fully understand the physics of hydrodynamics of wakes, ship dynamics/control, propulsors and their effects on vessel performance and associated energy dissipation into the environment to provide science-based metrics for the evaluation of new design concepts to improve efficiency, signatures, and overall capabilities. - Platform Structures: Focused on all timescales of varying reliability of naval structures. Key applied research is focused on the analysis and prediction for a ship structural system with uncertainty quantification and propagation based on real world usage. - Unmanned Vehicles (UxV): Autonomy for UxVs and related mission functions aligned with Naval S&T strategic focus on autonomy and unmanned vehicles in support of surface, submarine, subsea/seabed naval warfare. - Sea Platform Resiliency: Aligned with survivability S&T strategic focus area, research investigates susceptibility, survivability, and recoverability of all naval platforms. Work in susceptibility of naval platforms concentrates on signature reduction across the acoustic and non-acoustic spectrums. Applied research on survivability seeks to improve the ability of naval platforms to survive under stressing combat conditions, before, during, and after being affected by adversarial actions from kinetic and/or non-kinetic effectors. Research in recoverability of naval platforms seeks to better understand the complex nature of modern damage control measures necessary to enable platforms to recover to capability states necessary to avoid mission kill. - Digital Engineering: Naval engineering and platform design efforts to increase the speed to field and capability resiliency in the engineering process across platform lifecycles through the enablement of virtual design/monitor/usage models to be better informed through improved modeling and data science. Concentration of effort is placed on digitally linking all aspects of a platform lifecycle from ideation to destruction with identifiable metrics of military utility enabling fuller solution trade-space exploration.

The Naval Research Enterprise (NRE), through NavalX, supports mission-driven design think problem solving within the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE) and academia in support of culture changes to agile and rapid prototyping development driven by well defined and effective innovation process and operations. This will promote common innovation processes to stimulate effective NR&DE and industry wide collaborations and facilitation to accelerate the delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter. Activities are based on three foundational principles: (1) utilize innovative technical and business pathways that accelerate technology acquisition and deployment to the warfighter and pilot potential efforts as a result of this investigation; (2) leverage the commercial market and attract private investments to accelerate and reduce the cost for defense acquisition and deployment of technologies that provide capabilities to the warfighter; and (3) employ innovative best-practices in contracting that accelerate awards and provide flexibility and speed in technology and acquisition. The Independent Applied Research (IAR) Program focuses on solving a wide range of Naval Science and Technology (S&T) fleet issues utilizing unique Naval Warfare Center (WC) laboratory capabilities. Efforts under this activity address the full spectrum of the Naval Research and Development Framework using focus areas which engage Naval aviation, sea surface, undersea, space, weapons, communication, information, and human systems. The IAR Program provides participating WCs with in-house funding for applied research to support the execution of their assigned missions by: (1) developing and maintaining a cadre of active researchers who can distill and extend results from worldwide research and apply them to solve Naval problems; (2) promoting the hiring and development of talented new scientists and engineers (S&E) with the assurance of proper mentoring with senior personnel; and (3) encouraging collaboration with universities, private industry, and other Navy and Department of Defense laboratories. Funded projects are chosen through rigorous internal competition by each WC's selection committee and typically last two to three years. IAR projects are generally designed to promote investment in high-risk/high- payoff research and also allow young S&Es to manage Navy relevant research projects.

These applied research efforts are in support of the Energy-REACTS program. E-REACTS is the Department of Navy (DON) Operational Energy (OE) Portfolio executed under the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2912. These funds are for use to the Navy and Marine Corps strictly for the implementation of additional operational energy resilience, efficiencies, mission assurance, energy conservation, training, or energy security initiatives within the department.