Naval energetics research needs renewed focus.

• Author: Johnson, Ashley
• Position: COMMENTARY

* While other nations are making strides in energetic material development, the United States has remained dormant. The result is a surface fleet that lacks weapons with the range to attack aircraft, ships and submarines outside enemy anti-ship cruise missile range, according to one analyst.

The Navy deemphasized sea control in the 25 years since the end of the Cold War because U.S. maritime supremacy was essentially unchallenged, wrote Bryan Clark, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "Less investment went into surface fleet anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare capabilities or next-generation anti-air warfare weapons." Similarly, the Defense Department saw no peer competitors and its energetics research and development spending dropped precipitously.

Lack of evolution in this field isn't unique to the surface fleet. It impacts every domain of the naval enterprise: surface, undersea, air and ground. A renewed focus in energetic materials--research, development, testing and evaluation of energetics materials and systems--is required to regain the technological advantage and to provide solutions for emerging anti-access/area denial challenges.

Energetics are energy releasing materials--explosives, propellants, pyrotechnics, reactive materials, related chemicals and fuels--as well as their application in propulsion and ordnance systems engineered to optimize their effects. These complex materials are core to weapon development and help determine performance--range, speed, lethality and other effects. Energetic materials get weapons to the intended target, and ensure maximum lethality once they arrive.

Previous generations of these materials enabled U.S. technological superiority. Nitrocellulose propellants, Explosive D and fuzing extended naval gunfire's range and effects. Solid propellants in tough, lightweight, composite casings enabled submarine and ship-launched missiles; and thermobarics engineered for shoulder-launched munitions crumbled buildings at Fallujah.

But remaining on top requires continuous devotion, discipline, proficiency and technical rigor. Talent, novel concepts, capability and capacity are readily available within the Defense and Energy Departments, academia and industry. When there is appropriate interest and funding, new solutions are always possible. Examples include:

* Re-establishing a U.S. source of triamino-trinitrobenzene (TATB), an energetic material used in the booster and fuzing systems for missiles, bombs and artillery warheads. For decades, there had not been a continental U.S. source, and the United Kingdom source had not produced the material for nearly 10 years. Prior to the TATB working group's efforts, DoD had been forced to utilize stockpile material, which had been nearly exhausted.

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