2005 Draper Laboratory Annual Report

2005 DRAPER 4| 5Draper’s MK6 guidance system modernizationwill lower the Navy’s future maintenance costsand provide flexibility to support new missions.Over the last year, Draper has made significant progresstoward increasing our value to both our Navy and AirForce sponsors.FOR THE U.S. NAVYAs the prime contractor for the TRIDENT D5 Missile guidancesystem, Draper is modernizing the missile’s MK6 inertialguidance system to extend its life to the year 2042.This major modernization effort, called MK6 Life Extension(MK6LE), will lower the Navy’s future maintenance costsas well as provide flexibility to support new missionsand upgrades.Equally important has been our new responsibility tofacilitate and manage the Navy’s Integrated Support Facilityfor repairing existing MK6 guidance systems. This facility,located in Pittsfield, Mass., will become fully operationalin 2007.The Draper team and its major subcontractors also madesignificant progress this year on developing leading-edgetechnologies. In the area of inertial instruments, a newsolid-state, Interferometric Fiber-Optic Gyroscope (IFOG)was proven to be a viable possible replacement for theexisting mechanical gyro for MK6LE. Additionally, wesuccessfully demonstrated a low-noise variant of ourSilicon Oscillating Accelerometer (SOA), which could beutilized for future application to the TRIDENT submarinenavigation system.Our expertise in radiation-hardened semiconductor designhas allowed us to develop common electronic parts jointlywith Lockheed Martin for application to both MK6LEguidance and missile flight control electronics. Of particularinterest is the design team’s innovative repackaging ofcommercial semiconductor technology for MK6LE radiationhardenedmemory. One specific candidate for repackaging,magnetoresistive non-volatile memory, is targeted also forapplication to cell phones.FOR THE U.S. AIR FORCEThis year we successfully demonstrated a GPS/INSinstrumentation package for use in Minuteman III re-entryvehicles. Draper and Northrop Grumman ruggedized anF-22 INS system for the harsh re-entry environment,performed GPS/INS subsystem integration, and developedthe mission software. The capability will help the Air Forcevalidate its aerodynamic models and perform accuracyanalysis to improve surveillance of aging effects.Our SOA and the Flexured Mass Accelerometer (FMA)designs progressed in support of the Air Force ResearchLab’s objective to advance strategic-grade accelerometertechnologies. This year we refined the SOA manufacturingprocess and developed a radiation-hardened electroniccircuit card to read the silicon oscillator data accurately.The SOA is the only extremely accurate, silicon-basedaccelerometer for strategic applications in existence. We alsoare continuing to mature the FMA solid-state design throughprototyping and testing.Lastly, as the original design agent for the Peacekeeperand Minuteman accelerometer, we provide support tothe Air Force in accuracy and reliability analysis, and partsobsolescence, as well as repair for the Minutemanaccelerometer strategic instrument.