Raytheon Company

Paul S MacDonald

Jaylan S Jones

Frederick B Koehler

Ronald L Roncone

Shawn P Burke

Jessie A Polanco

A submunition assembly to be stored and deployed from an aerial vehicle, particularly a supersonic vehicle, includes a container having at least first and second walls that are joined at one end by a hinge that together define a volume along an axis perpendicular to the hinge that contains a submunition. The submunition assembly is suitably axially-shaped with a rigid parachute panel positioned around the hinge to separate and deploy a parachute. The container may have an internal volume that is conformal to the submunition. The container may have an exterior shape that is either optimized for free-fall or has a portion that provides a conformal surface for the aerial vehicle. The submunition assembly may be configured so that all processing, memory and data resides with the submunition, which issues any and all commands to control the container including separation of the rigid parachute panel and opening of the container to release the submunition.

Submunition assembly

A dual-mode roll/nod gimballed seeker is configured to provide an unobstructed path for a forming-warhead penetrator. A nod assembly includes first and second seekers separately offset from the roll axis whose FOV overlap within a stand-off range to a target. A roll gimbal rotates the dome and nod assembly around the roll axis. A nod gimbal rotates the nod assembly about a nod axis over a nod FOR that causes the seekers to cross the roll axis and obstruct a path along the roll axis. At terminal, the nod gimbal rotates the nod assembly to a nominal nod angle at which the path is unobstructed to detonate the forming warhead and project a penetrator along the path through the dome. This alleviates the need for a precursor charge and saves precious volume in the airframe, which is of particular import for small diameter warheads, in particular those having a diameter of no more than 8 inches.

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Tiverton, RI, United States of America

Paul S MacDonald