TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes, Battlespace

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Marine Corps Systems Command, Program Manager for Ammunition (PMM204)

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this effort is to develop a replacement material that can be used in all, or most, obsurant smoke cartridges currently in the USMC inventory.

DESCRIPTION: Find a material or combination of materials that, is capable of generating large quantities of obscuring smoke, while limiting the user to harmful and hazardous chemicals, both during opearation and storage.

PHASE I: Find potential candidate materials to replace red phosphorus in smoke producing, obscurance, munitions. Define the mechanism of operation, and perform small scale tests to demonstrate its potential effectiveness and to justify larger scale testing.

PHASE II: Using the best candidate(s) from Phase I, perform larger scale testing on prototype hardware, that demonstrates the material's smoke producing capabilities. Perform chemical analyses during operation and storage to demonstrate it does not subject the user to harmful or hazardous chemicals. Define the manufacturability of the material.

PHASE III: The USMC has requirements for obscuring smoke producing cartridges is all mortar and artillery systems 60MM and larger. The candidate fill material has potential applications in the USMC 60MM, 81MM, and 120MM mortars; the 155MM artillery smoke cartridges; and floating smoke pot, as well as the US Army 105MM artillery cartridge.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Non-toxic smoke generation for potential use in firefighter training and entertainment, such as stage plays and celebrations.

REFERENCES:
1. Toxicity of Military Smokes and Obscurants, Vol 2; National Academy Press; ISBN 0309063299
Field Manual FM71-123, Appendix G: Tactics and Technicques for Combined Arms Heavy Forces: Armored Brigades, Battalion Task Forces, and Company Teams, Appendix G - Smoke Obscurants.

KEYWORDS: Obscurants; Smoke; Red Phosphorus

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

DoD Notice:   Between November 6, 2006 and December 5, 2006, you may talk directly with the Topic Author(s) to ask technical questions about the topics. Their contact information is listed above. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed starting December 6, 2006, when DoD begins accepting proposals for this solicitation.

However, proposers may still submit written questions about solicitation topics through the SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS), in which the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing until the solicitation closes. All proposers are advised to monitor SITIS (07.1 Q&A) during the solicitation period for questions and answers, and other significant information, relevant to the SBIR 07.1 topic under which they are proposing.

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