SURFACE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: DTRA10-001

Description

To address the needs of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), GSI will perform in three areas during the course of this effort. 1) GSI will evaluate a new formulation, capable of self-propagating reaction with the production of an electrically conductive aerosol, for the purpose of Intrusive Electronic Equipment Defeat. This material will be evaluated against electronic equipment (PC's) and also against dispersed Biological Agent simulants (Bt and Bg). GSI has the capability to evaluate performance against electronic targets and biological agent simulants in-house. 2) GSI will fabricate a non-hydrocarbon Black Smoke Generator (BSG) using an existing GSI formulation. The BSG will be demonstrated for DTRA at the GSI site. GSI will provide an additional device to DTRA for further demonstrations at an off-site location. 3) GSI will fabricate and demonstrate a High Temperature FireStart Device (HTFSD). GSI will show the effectiveness of this device in raising room temperature to the flashover point. GSI will utilize existing formulations for this task. General Sciences, Incorporated (GSI) has developed a formulation, which produces an electrically shunting, corrosive material from a thermally activated source, for use within a tunnel environment. This material is generated from a thermal decomposition of a material, travels as a fine mist in existing air currents as well as due to the slight overpressure developed during the reaction and then settles out on available surfaces. This residue is electrically conductive and corrosive, causing immediate failures of computers and other sensitive electronics, as well as delayed failure of 'harder' targets, such as generators. GSI has also developed concepts involving enhanced obscurants and high temperature thermal sources, which can be, used as thermal accelerants; these concepts are better suited to smaller volumes or stealth applications. The proposed effort will build on progress to date to better address threats of interest to DTRA.