Bomb Strike Experiment for Mine Countermeasure

Abstract

The Navy’s bomb maneuvering model (STRIKE35) predicts the bomb location and trajectory in air and water columns. The Bomb Strike Experiment for Mine Countermeasure Operations, currently sponsored through the Office of Naval Research mine and obstacle breaching technology program, is part of a multi-year, comprehensive effort aimed at enhancing the Navy’s fleet naval mine clearance capability and success. The investigation discussed in this thesis examines the experimental and theoretical characteristics of a rigid body falling through the air, water, and sediment column at high speed. Several experiments were conducted to launch bomb-like rigid bodies with the density ratio similar to operational munitions, namely the MK-84 general purpose bomb, into a hydrodynamic test tank. Careful observations of the bomb-like rigid body’s position and orientation were collected and analyzed to produce a series of three-dimensional coordinate time-space data tables and plots. The resulting data set reveals a strong correlation between shape type and trajectory and dispersion patterns for rigid bodies moving through the water column at high velocity. This data will be used for development and verification of the three-dimensional model bomb strike model (STRIKE35) aimed at predicting the overall trajectory, maneuvering, burial depth and orientation of a falling high-velocity rigid body in the air-water-sediment column. The long-term goal of this project is to improve warhead lethality for use in quick, precise and accurate strikes on known enemy naval minefields in the littoral combat environment.