US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

The Government of the United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Homeland Security

Robert P Kaste

Bruce P Burns

Chih-Tsai Chen

Stephen A Wilkerson

Ashiq A Quabili

Patrick O'Connor

Nelson Carey

Chian-Fong Yen

Jian H Yu

Lawrence J Puckett

Peter Plostins

Robert E Tompkins

An explosive threat mitigation unit (TMU) stands ready to receive a suspected bomb, enclose it, and contain the explosion if one occurs. An operator protects bystanders and surroundings by putting the suspected bomb in a TMU and then closing the TMU. If the bomb goes off, the TMU mitigates the effects of both the blast and the fragments. One variation has a container, a tube, a cap, and a door. The container includes an opening. The tube, arranged in the container, aligns with the opening. The cap slides through the opening and over the tube. The door slides into place to close the opening and enclose the cap within the container.

Foldable explosive threat mitigation unit

Explosive threat mitigation unit

A shotgun shell includes a sabot with a tubular portion extending from a e, a chamber disposed within the tubular portion in communication with an opening in the base, a load of shot disposed within the tubular portion around the chamber, and a valve disposed between the chamber and the opening to control the flow of propellant gases into and out of the chamber. The valve can be a choke with a flow constricting orifice that delays pressurization and depressurization of the chamber. Alternatively, or in addition to a choke valve, a movable valve member can be disposed between the chamber and the opening to seal with a valve seat in order to capture high pressure propellant gases which, upon emergence of the sabot from the gun barrel, will assist in creating a highly dispersed shot pattern at close range. Also disclosed are a number of ways in which the sabot can be modified to control the stiffness of the tubular portion in order to change the shape of the shot pattern to suit specific applications.

Sabot for high-dispersion shot shell

A double ramped, saboted, kinetic energy assembly automatically aligns a jectile in a gun tube. The assembly has an acceleration activated device consisting of a split centering ring causing alignment during the early phase of the shot motion of the projectile. The assembly also includes a series of small protrusions or a continuous expandable ring which forces and maintains the projectile into a straight aligned position during its traversal of the gun tube. The assembly may have either a smooth bore or a rifled bore gun tube. The disclosure also include a method related to the assembly.

Stabilization band/ring assembly for aligning a projectile in a gun tube

An improved segmented doubled ramp sabot for launching a sub-caliber projile, comprising a plurality of longitudinal ribs disposed on the forward and aft ramp sections of the sabot, and a plurality of longitudinal ribs disposed between an obturating band seat and a conical borerider. The combined cross sectional area of the double ramp segments, together with the combined cross sectional area of the ribs, are such that the sum of these areas is approximately equal to the cross sectional area of a double ramp sabot representative of prior art. As a result, axial stiffness is unaffected, and uniform shear traction forces between the sabot and projectile are maintained. In addition, the transverse bending stiffness of the sabot is improved, thereby reducing in-bore vibration and shot dispersion while allowing maximum energy transfer to the projectile. Use of a stiffer material for the ribs further improves transverse bending stiffness and performance.

Splined sabot

A material tester which allows for material characterization under hydrodmic loading including very high rates of loading such as found in ballistic applications, and which includes various interchangeable fittings to allow the tester to simultaneously subject a test specimen to (1) radial compression and axial tension, or (2) radial compression and axial compression, or (3) radial compression and axial shearing stress.

Material tester

The present invention discloses a blank firing attachment for gun tubes of utomatic or semi-automatic weapons when firing blank cartridges. The attachment includes a flash suppressor having milled axial slots threadably attached to the gun tube, a slidable cam pivotally mounted to a collar threadably attached to a shaft containing a restricted passage for gas flow from the gun tube, and a number of locking lugs pivotally connected to the collar. Axial movement of the shaft causes the lugs to engage the axial slots and the shaft to engage the gun tube end, thereby restricting gas flow from the gun and providing back pressure to permit automatic or semi-automatic firing of the weapon when using blank ammunition. Thus, the attachment is made compact and is fireable in all modes for various weapons, including M231 weapon.

Growing community of inventors

North East, MD, United States of America

Robert P Kaste