Raytheon Company

Tovan Adams

Mathew H Bosse

Eric Christopher Maugans

Justin C Dyster

Norman Lange

Lee Rodriguez

Craig A Zimmerman

W Norman Lange, Jr

A guidance electronics unit is provided for an explosively-launched vehicle, e.g., a projectile or missile, comprising a plurality of circuit card assemblies, each circuit card assembly containing a plurality of electronic components and interconnections, each circuit card assembly maintained in a housing and spaced apart. All spaces surrounding each circuit card assembly are filled with a granular material to provide support for each circuit card assembly during explosive launch. Further, a method for supporting circuit card assemblies in the guidance electronics unit is provided. The problem of enabling guidance electronics to survive the large loads encountered during an explosive launch out of a gun, such as a howitzer, or missile launch tube is thereby solved.

Granular matter filled weapon guidance electronics unit

Energy ( ) and mission data ( ) for a guided projectile are transferred from a projectile setter ( ) over an inductive interface ( ). The projectile may include energy storage element ( ) to store the energy and a data storage element ( ) to store the mission data. Precision GPS clock circuitry ( ) of the projectile may receive power from a capacitive energy storage ( ) element during projectile loading until a flight battery ( ) is activated. In one embodiment, the capacitive energy storage element ( ) includes at least one super capacitor ( ) and a gun-hardened capacitor ( ). The clock circuitry ( ) may receive power from the gun-hardened capacitor ( ) if the super capacitor ( ) fails during the launching operation. The capacitive energy storage element ( ) may include one-way energy transfer elements ( ) coupled between the super capacitor ( ) and the gun-hardened capacitor ( ). A regulator ( ) may be coupled to an output of the capacitive storage element ( ) to regulate an input voltage to the clock circuitry ( ).

Method and apparatus for energy and data retention in a guided projectile

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Tovan Adams