U.S. military is looking for all-in-one triggering device
At present, soldiers wishing to blow something up usually have to assemble firing circuits, electronics, detonators, and main charges in the field — or, at any rate, lash them together with gaffer tape and so forth prior to parachuting, submarining, or helicoptering into action; Pentagon research arm want a better way of triggering an explosive
Are you in the business of developing triggering mechanisms? Read on. The U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center (Crane Division), an innovative gadget builders for units such as the Navy SEAL and their various Special Operations Command (SOCOM) colleagues, has issued an RFI for a new triggering device for demolitions. Lewis Pages notes that, at present, soldiers wishing to blow something up usually have to assemble firing circuits, electronics, detonators, and main charges in the field — or, at any rate, lash them together with gaffer tape and so forth prior to parachuting, submarining, or helicoptering into action.
The NSW-Crane experts want to make all this unnecessary. Instead, there should be a single main module about the size of a deck of cards, which has built into it a detonator able to set off a charge of plastic explosive, a length of detcord, or a pyrotechnic fuse. This base module should have a timer, able to go off at a set time or after counting down a set period.
Now, the primary unit needs to be safe from triggering by electromagnetic emissions and safe to carry even when attached to the main charge. It has to be waterproof to 66-foot depths and work in extreme cold or brutal heat, and its software/firmware must comply with U.S. military regs. The clever bit, however, comes in the fact that the base timer detonator is to have “a standard connection/interface to be used with all attachable accessories… i.e., any source input signal can be recognized and used to initiate the base unit.”
The attachable accessories are to include a sympathetic detonator triggered by the blast of another nearby explosion — thus letting American soldiers rig up daisy-chains of destruction amid enemy camps (Page notes that in real life, unassisted explosives often stubbornly refuse to go off even when quite close to adjacent explosions).
NSW-Crane also require a breaching initiator for blowing in doors (or simply creating doors where there were none before), offering reliable 50 meter range even indoors and round corners. There should also be a more conventional radio job with 18 km range in line of sight.
The RFI also stipulates that there should also be a motion-detector attachment, allowing tricky booby traps to be set up (sensibly, there has to be a self-destruct timer on the device, or it would violate international conventions banning landmines). There is also to be a magnetic metal-detector job, with similar compliance features. Finally, a “trip wire initiator” in old-school style.
Prices on the plugin trigger device are not set, but the base unit — which would be the most expensive component — is to cost “approximately $300 or less” in batches of 10,000.
