Weapon Systems facilities in NJ
11 facilities
Automatic Test Equipment Lab
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The Automated Test Systems Division (ATSD) has assembled facilities to support the on-site development of Test Program Sets (TPS) for Weapon Systems. The facility occupies over 13,000 sq. ft. and houses over eighteen million dollars of equipment and materials.
Ballistic Rail Gun Soft Recovery Facility
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The Ballistic Rail Gun Soft Recovery Facility accommodates a 155mm Howitzer, fired horizontally into a 104-foot long water trough to slow the projectile and recover the payload undamaged. Experimental items are loaded into the 155mm projectile and fired with energetic propellant to experience the in bore setback, acceleration and spin of a typical projectile firing. Spin can be minimized by the use of the slip obturator to simulate smoothbore environments. The projectile is recovered intact in the water trough within five (5) minutes of firing. This facility is used to evaluate projectiles, mine components, telemetry packages, components for guidance systems, whole guidance systems, fuzes, and fuze components.
Experimental Weapon/Armament Prototyping Facility
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
This complete manufacturing facility contains 250 pieces of equipment to include CNC, NC and conventional machine tools, heat treating, welding, inspection and associated support equipment to meet ARDEC's R&D; mission. This equipment is used for prototype development of test quantities on a wide variety of armaments. The uniqueness of this facility is in the varied type and the quality of the equipment it houses. The building is 85,000 square feet and has three bridge cranes (50 ton, 20 ton, 15 ton) that run the length of the main building. These allow large vehicles to be disassembled, modified and reassembled with ease.
Fire Control Integration Laboratory (FCIL)
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The RDECOM-ARDEC Fire Control Integration Laboratory (FCIL) is capable of accommodating a broad array of combat vehicles and towed weapons systems for integration and testing of various mechanical and electrical on board components and subsystems. The FCIL is a two bay high ceiling shop with double overhead doors and is capable of housing two combat vehicles at a time. Typically, hardware and software undergoing integration, debugging, and testing are intended as a performance upgrade for a specific system through follow-on retrofitting. The FCIL is classified as open secret storage and contains a full complement of electronic instrumentation for system monitoring and data acquisition during testing, common shop tools, overhead lifts/cranes for light component removal and replacement, power supplies with NATO connectors capable of fully powering up any combat vehicle, and is heated for year-round/all seasonal work. The FCIL is approximately 2,000 sq. ft. and the vehicles currently occupying the facility are the Abrams M1A1/M1A2 Main Battle Tank and the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled Howitzer, which are primarily used to provide field support in the form of technical problem investigation and resolution. The FCIL is constantly conducting evaluations of fire control enhancements and navigational capabilities that allow our soldiers to successfully engage in combat activities while using the latest and most technologically advanced weapons.
Fire Control System Integration Facility
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The Fire Control System Integration Facility (FCSIF) is a High Bay facility capable of accommodating a broad array of self propelled and towed weapon systems for system-level integration and testing of various fire control components and subsystems. The facility has a floor area of 11,400 square feet with a 50 ft high ceiling and a 35 ton overhead crane. The facility is accessible by the various weapon systems through a 24 ft wide by 14 ft high overhead door. The FCSIF is equipped with outdoor radio antennas mounted on the building's rooftop that facilitate communicating with the FDC M577 and various weapon systems throughout the arsenal area to support navigation and other system-level testing. The FCSIF is flanked on each side by System Integration Laboratories (SILs) that contain a full complement of electrical instrumentation for system interfacing, monitoring and data acquisition during testing. A rooftop mounted GPS antenna provides GPS signal that is networked and re-radiated through out the laboratory, thus eliminating multiple GPS antennas and providing GPS signal in the SILs and Highbay area. The hardware and software systems undergoing integration, debugging and testing are typically developed in-house as a new capability or a performance upgrade for a specific system. The facility contains shop tools, overhead lifts and cranes for removal and replacement of components weighing up to thirty-five tons, and is heated and cooled for year-round, all season work. Systems currently using the facility include the M1064 Mortar Carrier, M577 Fire Direction Center, STYRKER Mortar Variant, M777 Lightweight Howitzer, and the M109A6 Paladin Self-Propelled Howitzer
Fuze Development Facility (Adelphi Laboratory Center)
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The Fuze Division at Adelphi applies new and innovative technologies to design and develop safe, reliable and affordable fuzing systems. They specialize in the design and development of proximity sensors, controller circuits, Electronic Safety and Arming mechanisms and inductive setters that provide highly accurate burst height control and improved resistance to Electronic Counter Measures. Their capability can modify and optimize existing proximity sensor designs to satisfy a wide variety of unique requirements and package them to survive gun launch.
Gun Dynamics Laboratory
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The Gun Dynamics Laboratory is a research multi-task facility, which includes two firing bays, a high bay area and a second floor laboratory space. The high bay area is used for the investigation of structural dynamic response of heavy weapons and weapon components to launch excitation. The room is 80 feet x 40 feet with a high load density floor. Instrumentation includes 12 channels of digital data capture and display in 3 synchronized Nicolet oscilloscopes with 4,000 points per channel. There is also a data acquisition system with 10 channels at 256,000 points per channel. The photo shows an instrumented experimental 6Omm tube being prepared for firing, to evaluate its dynamic response.
Indoor Environmental Firing Range Test Bed
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The range consists of 5 firing lanes at 25 yards for pistol and shotgun. The laboratory is equipped with an adjustable berm support structure that can accommodate various impact various impact media, an overhead remote spray system, a water capture and treatment system and a new state-of-the-art air handling system with HEPA filtration. The range also serves as a pistol training and qualification facility for local Picatinny Police and Marine Corps. Reserve.
Interior Ballistic Simulation Facility
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
This ISO-registered Air Gun Facility has 2-and 5-inch air guns that provide high-g, unidirectional accelerations and a 155mm gun that gives angular and linear acceleration simultaneously. They operate by accelerating a piston containing the test object down the barrel by means of high-pressure gas. Soft recovery permits immediate post-test inspection and repeated testing of the same items. This equipment supports interior ballistic and time simulation test requirements of ARDEC projects as well as those of other Services and the private sector.
Mortar Fire Control System Integration Laboratory (SIL)
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The Mortar Fire Control Programs System Integration Lab is a 2478 square-foot Software Support Environment (SSE). The Lab contains all target fielded hardware and software tools required to support all Mortar Fire Control Programs, such as the Mortar Fire Control System (MFCS) and the Lightweight Hand Held Mortar Ballistic Computer (LHMBC). Testing consists of the operational software which includes integration testing and software formal qualification testing. The MFSC consists of 6 complete test station environments, where each environment supports testing as a mortar platoon, including associated Fire Support Network assets with a Fire Direction Center (FDC), FBCB2, FOS, AFATDS. Multiple gun configurations are constructed to perform multiple-gun testing. The mortar lab is also equipped with outdoor radio antennas mounted on the building's rooftop that facilitate communicating with the FDC M577, Stryker Vehicle and 1064 Gun platforms throughout the arsenal area to support navigation testing. A rooftop mounted GPS antenna provides GPS signal that is networked and re-radiated through out the laboratory, thus eliminating multiple GPS antennas and providing GPS signal in the laboratories and highbay area. The Lab also consists of post-fielding stations and hardware kitting area for system fielding such as that performed for the LHMBC.
Soft Recovery System Facility (Scat Gun)
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
The SCat Guns will be used to impart the severe launch conditions (setback up to PIMP+ 25% and other conditions unique to artillery, mortar and tank gun weapon systems) to developmental ammunition and their components. Current and future weapon requirements of increased range, high precision, high rates-of-fire, and sophisticated electronics (smart rounds), have a direct impact on ammunition development and evaluation. A means of subjecting these developmental designs to actual launch conditions (i.e. high accelerations and spin) and then soft recover for physical inspection, bench tests and evaluation are critical to the designer/engineer. The SCat Gun provides the best and most cost effective method for analyzing these critical components in their representative, unmodified structure by subjecting them to the actual launch environment and then allowing for their recovery without damaging the projectile or payload at a low cost. Additionally, telemetry units can be fired, recovered and evaluated prior to actual proving ground test round firings. This will ensure all data is recorded, stored and/or transmitted back to the ground station during one-of-a-kind type tests. Significant cost savings can be realized on these unique evaluation programs, since every round will produce valid data, thereby reducing the number of proving ground firings needed for overall program development. By using the SCat Gun as an integral design aid, the development engineers will have a low cost, powerful evaluation technique where performance information can be ascertained quickly, cheaply and most importantly, before substantial quantities of experimental test rounds are designed and fabricated. This leads to substantial developmental cost savings