USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Louis J Montesi

Douglas M Hinely

Gerald R Laib

William H Reams

Robert R Durrell

Fred L Menz

Charles W Goode

Brian L Will

Howard S Leopold, Deceased

A safety and arming device interconnecting a bomb with a target detector ures safe mine laying deployment thereof through a detonation explosive train that is armed in delayed response to payout of a lanyard under enablement control exercised by a hydrodynamic piston in response to water impact during such deployment.

Safety and arming device

An improved release apparatus, including an actuator device, a release dee and a firing device, releases the firing device in a water environment and not in an air environment when the actuator device is remotely actuated. When in a water environment, a predetermined gas pressure from the actuator device drives forward a pusher piston and valve sleeve arrangement, disposed in a water chamber of the release device, initially to close off lower entry/exit orifices in the water chamber by action of the valve sleeve, and then to compress an entrapped column of water to a predetermined water pressure sufficiently to cause shearing off of an annular lip of a ball lock piston thereby separating the firing device from the release device. When in an air environment, the pressure from a compressed entrapped air column is not sufficient to cause shearing off or folding down of the annular lip of the ball lock piston, and, accordingly, the release apparatus is safed.

Water-armed/air-safed release apparatus

Dual-mode capability is provided in a warhead initiation system having an itiation transfer assembly and two, end booster plates. The initiation transfer assembly comprises five, separate lines of mild detonating cord (MDC) swaged together at one end in an acceptor manifold. Two MDCs of equal length terminate at each of the booster plates and the fifth, shorter MDC is directed to the center of the aft booster plate via an initiation mode selector which controls detonation propagation along this cord. The safety and arming mechanism of the warhead ignites the acceptor manifold, causing simultaneous initiation of the five MDCs. In the normal mode, a launch signal causes the initiation mode selector to extend a control barrier across the path of the shorter, fifth MDC to prevent faster propagation of detonation to the aft booster plate, thus resulting in dual-ended initiation of the warhead when both end plates are simultaneously ignited by the equal-length MDCs. For single-ended initiation, the mode selector is not actuated, thus permitting the aft booster plate to initiate sooner than the forward plate via the shorter, fifth MDC.

Dual-mode warhead initiation system

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Silver Spring, MD, United States of America

Louis J Montesi