Date of Award
Spring 2015
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics
Department
Aeronautics and Astronautics
First Advisor
Daniel A DeLaurentis
Committee Chair
Daniel A DeLaurentis
Committee Member 1
James Dietz
Committee Member 2
William A Crossley
Abstract
Present day air-delivered weapons are of a closed architecture, with little to no ability to tailor the weapon for the individual engagement. The closed architectures require weaponeers to make the target fit the weapon instead of fitting the individual weapons to a target. The concept of a flexible weapons aims to modularize weapons design using an open architecture shell into which different modules are inserted to achieve the desired target fractional damage while reducing cost and civilian casualties. This thesis shows that the architecture design factors of damage mechanism, fusing, weapons weight, guidance, and propulsion are significant in enhancing weapon performance objectives, and would benefit from modularization. Additionally, this thesis constructs an algorithm that can be used to design a weapon set for a particular target class based on these modular components.
Recommended Citation
Pyant, William C., "Flexible weapons architecture design" (2015). Open Access Theses. 597.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_theses/597