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The Joint Munitions Technology Development program has endured for nearly 40 years as a force for unified research empowering the departments of Energy and Defense.
A 1985 visit to Lawrence Livermore by a Department of Defense (DOD) representative sparked a unique research partnership that thrives today. DOD’s George Kopcsak recognized that components designed for nuclear weapons, in alignment with Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives, could also be applied to conventional, nonnuclear munitions, the primary responsibility of DOD.
Livermore’s slapper detonator was a notable example. The slapper detonator ensures intentional detonation of an explosive device by an operator rather than accidental detonation by external disturbances. As Randy Simpson, retired Livermore scientist, explains, “The United States has extraordinarily powerful weapons that need to function once, and only once: when we resolve to use them. Consider dynamite, which requires a blasting cap to explode. A match flame won’t set off a stick of dynamite on its own. The slapper detonator permits reliable, direct activation of an explosive.” Seeing the value of such a safeguard for conventional weapons, Kopcsak initiated mass production of the device for DOD.
The detonator design continues to be used in conventional (nonnuclear) ordnance. The DOE–DOD commitment to cooperative research that grew from that 1985 visit has endured as well. Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed the same year, DOE and DOD formed the Joint Munitions Program (JMP), a partnership ensuring long-term research efforts beyond limited-scale projects. The JMP positions Lawrence Livermore and fellow national security laboratories as continuous engines of technology for the warfighter.
Long-Term Agility
The JMP partnership thrives on true mutual benefit. DOD’s scientists focus on shifting, often urgent threats, leading to broad expertise in materials, methods, and applications. In contrast, the long service lives of DOE systems and the narrow range of design and performance requirements enable DOE scientists to develop technical depth. Uniting the laboratory systems in collaborative research strengthens both services, injecting breadth into DOE capabilities and technical rigor into specific DOD capabilities. “The JMP exists because DOE has already addressed problems that DOD needs to solve, and vice versa,” says Jim McCarrick, a former JMP program manager for Livermore. “Why have DOD reinvent the wheel—and spend more taxpayer dollars doing so—when DOE is already working on projects with applications beyond the nuclear world?”
The program is organized into close-knit, subject-matter-specific Technical Coordinating Groups (TCGs) headed by DOD personnel who provide regular and substantive input on both the technical robustness of the projects and the alignment of JMP project goals with defense needs. McCarrick describes the communication benefits of the TCGs: “DOE and DOD effectively speak different languages. DOE laboratories don’t know DOD’s technological priorities without this kind of discourse,” he says. “The TCG structure allows each party to educate the other on pertinent problems and approaches while also providing DOD scientists with an avenue to guide and peer-review JMP work. We reach resolution on project scope and expense because this oversight ensures our efforts are transferrable to DOD and its contractors. The JMP overcomes myriad barriers that would hold back interdepartmental collaboration.”
In the 40 years since the JMP formed, Livermore has developed and maintained relationships with research divisions across the armed forces, evolving as needs and capabilities change. “This program is older than the National Nuclear Security Administration, older, in fact, than the careers of most of our staff,” says Elizabeth (Libby) Glascoe, current Livermore program manager for the JMP. “For a program such as this to endure is a testament to the cooperation among JMP participants as well as the shared gains.”
Energetic Beginning
The Laboratory excels in developing and studying explosives whose detonative effects can be tailored for different devices. “Even early in the partnership, DOE had extensive experience using energetic materials to move metal in very precise ways to make our munitions function,” says McCarrick, now the Laboratory’s High-Energy-Density and Photon Systems program director. “Adapting this understanding was a natural fit for DOD’s conventional munitions needs.”
Randy Simpson, who administered the JMP at the Laboratory for 12 years, points to the development of explosive compound CL-20 as an early example of the JMP’s knack for mutual assistance. The Naval Surface Weapons Center in China Lake, California, initially synthesized CL-20, which offers a 20 percent greater energy profile than the next-best energetic. When DOD funding to develop the material diminished, Livermore helped advance the material by developing and scaling up the synthesized quantities for testing, drawing heavily upon the Laboratory’s expertise in handling and characterizing explosives. With JMP resources, the Laboratory increased basic science understanding of CL-20 and provided the results to DOD.
CL-20 is only one of numerous explosive materials honed at Livermore with JMP resources. Others include the high explosive LLM-105 (see S&TR, August 2021, Three Decades of Explosive Innovation), a superior performing explosive that meets NNSA’s high safety and stability requirements. When DOE funding for LLM-105 development waned, JMP and DOD resources fueled the exploratory science necessary to understand the material’s foundational properties. Lara Leininger, Livermore’s JMP program manager from 2011 to 2015 says, “We strove for new, increasingly effective molecules with enhanced safety properties.” As with the earlier scale-up of CL-20, JMP’s funding and the collaboration between DOD and DOE ensured that material development advanced. The W80-4 Life Extension Program and W87-1 Modification Program identified LLM-105 as the best explosive to meet specific component requirements. (See S&TR, October/November 2018, Extending the Life of a Workhorse Warhead.) Now LLM-105 will be the first new explosive to enter the nuclear explosive package in the stockpile since the ban on underground nuclear testing. “That’s the power that long-term partnerships enable,” says Simpson. “Everyone benefits.”
When DOD desired new detonation testing capabilities in the early 2010s, the JMP addressed the challenge with the design of the Disc Acceleration eXperiment (DAX) test, a faster, more affordable, and repeatable version of DOE’s high-precision cylinder experiments. Both the DAX test and the cylinder experiment evaluate the detonation velocity, pressure, and expansion energy of explosives—measurements also necessary for simulation studies used to investigate detonative behavior. While the cylinder experiment holds steady as the best test for an extremely precise explosive model, DAX offers quick, less-expensive screening, offering DOD easier access to experimental capabilities. “The cost of the DAX test is at least 10 times lower than the cylinder test,” explains Glascoe, “but we give up some precision in the data when choosing DAX over cylinder. Ultimately, that sacrifice is worth the cost savings when testing new explosive molecules or newly manufactured lots of an existing explosive.” The DAX test is also used for Livermore’s W80-4 Life Extension Program for the assessment of the booster material LX-21.
“The program has repeatedly demonstrated agile work on hard problems within short timelines,” says Chris Cross, a former JMP program technical director for Livermore. He cites Excalibur, a precision round used by the U.S. Army. With JMP resources, Army laboratories drew upon Livermore’s advancements in modeling and simulation of explosive dynamics to increase Excalibur’s reliability and safety. Cross says, “Only because of the JMP’s work in explosives modeling and combined knowledge of arming, firing, and fusing components were we able to identify the impact of potential anomalies on explosive performance.”
Incubation with Computation
“Lawrence Livermore has invested in advanced scientific computing since its inception,” says Glascoe, “so naturally, our contributions to the JMP are rooted in modeling and simulation.” For fiscal year 2024, approximately two-thirds of the JMP’s combined DOD–DOE $25 million funding at the Laboratory targets high-performance computing. “We embrace computing, even for projects you might not expect, such as energetics synthesis and new material development. Today, almost all JMP projects have an element of scientific computing to drive design—something I find very exciting.”
As part of its stockpile stewardship mission, DOE is primarily interested in modeling and simulation to support the design, qualification, and certification of the nuclear stockpile. At the same time, Livermore codes are well suited for modeling DOD conventional munitions platforms. The Laboratory’s highly versatile ALE3D multiphysics code simulates material dynamics and elastic-plastic response under high strain rate conditions in an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) framework. Moreover, ALE3D can model the thermomechanical, chemical, and electromagnetic processes of materials coupled with detonation, deflagration, and convective burn. These capabilities allow ALE3D to be used in a variety of DOD applications such as blast effects, munitions lethality–vulnerability, and high-explosive performance and safety.
Available as a stand-alone tool and integrated with ALE3D is Livermore’s Cheetah thermochemical code, which captures the physical and chemical properties of explosives at the high pressures and temperatures of a detonation. Cheetah accurately predicts, for example, detonation velocities and energy output of high explosives and other energetic materials. Together, the codes provide an unparalleled scientific resource not only for DOE’s mission space but also for DOD’s munitions design and lethality assessment activities.
The JMP invests heavily in both ALE3D and Cheetah, to the benefit of both DOE and DOD. For example, using these tools, a conventional weapon can be modeled, starting with the initiation of the explosive’s detonation, to determine the blast, fragment sizes, and fragment velocities of the munitions case. Modeling these fragments as they impact a target provides DOD with a predictor of the weapon’s performance.
Modeling circumvents the logistical difficulties of explosives and weapons testing. “Testing is expensive and time consuming,” says Glascoe, referencing the tremendous investments required to develop materials, build test articles, and execute testing with rigorous diagnostics. “The landscape of possible munitions designs is vast. Designers can vary shapes, sizes, or materials in a munition to achieve a desired effects or compensate for other design requirements such as aging or power requirements.” Exploring the landscape of design variables and ways that each modification might alter the resulting performance of the weapon is accelerated using advanced computational tools. “The goal, in model-based engineering, is to work out all the kinks in the design and optimize before starting the hands-on work of building and testing a design,” says Glascoe. This approach promises a better product at lower cost because much of the Edisonian (trial-and-error) testing activities are replaced by computational studies. With JMP investments to advance computational optimization capabilities and fast-running surrogate modeling methods, these computational tools allow for a broader exploration of the landscape of design and performance variables.
The codes and their accuracy are dependent on the quality of the material models. This is where the Laboratory sees a tremendous benefit from the collaboration. “Material codes are a prime example of ‘spin-back’ in the JMP,” says Leininger. “DOE research involves a limited number of materials and geometries. When DOD uses our codes for their purposes, the tools are exposed to different materials and environments through which we can identify and remedy any blind spots and validate performance beyond initial scope.” Past and present JMP investments have significantly lengthened the list of material models developed and validated. These investments pushed Livermore’s multiphysics codes into regimes beyond DOE requirements, giving developers and analysts a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of their tools.
Material performance models and multiphysics codes are just one portion of Livermore’s scientific computing investment. Today’s JMP portfolio includes development of machine-learning tools in the flight modeling suite, Sora, that significantly accelerate calculation of aerodynamics databases. (See S&TR, April/May 2023, Streamlined.) Past investment developed a computational model to predict weapon component service life and aging due to material compatibility as part of the Laboratory’s Reaction Sorption and Transport (ReSorT) model. (See S&TR, December 2022, W87-1: The Modfication that Invigorated an Enterprise.) JMP includes several projects developing computational tools to accelerate material discovery such as new explosive molecules and high-entropy metal alloys.
Machine Learning for Manufacturing
As people in the partnership change, technical perspectives in the JMP also evolve. The growth of machine learning has added new focus to some technical pursuits, such as discovering new explosive molecules and optimizing alloy mixtures among the enormous range of possibilities. Numerical methods augment additive manufacturing by computationally exploring a vast array of possible designs for a component and identifying the optimal designs.
Livermore has extensively researched new materials and manufacturing methods for constructing munitions casings with improved performance amid high temperatures and pressures. Traditional metal cases fragment when the explosive fill is detonated, resulting in a widespread spray of metal fragments. In contrast, carbon fiber composite cases break down quickly or disintegrate upon detonation, decreasing the threat of collateral damage and offering advantages for precision strikes in close quarters and urban environments. The suitability of structures 3D-printed with carbon fiber composites hinges on agreement between the feedstock’s microstructure and the alignment of individual printed fibers. Using computational techniques such as nozzle-flow modeling, tool-path optimization, and advanced topology optimization, researchers have produced robust, printed munitions casings.
An early foray into carbon-fiber composite manufacturing exploited the established method of winding carbon fiber filaments to manufacture the casing for the BLU-129 bomb. (See S&TR, March 2013, Advanced Engineering Delivers More Exact Weapons Performance.) Computational methods offered an enhanced response in a Strategic Partnerships Project in which JMP developed a material model to predict the performance of a carbon-fiber composite. “When there was a [DOD] call for a low-collateral munition in Afghanistan,” says Cross, “we rapidly transitioned metal-loaded blast explosives (MBX) research and carbon-fiber material models done by Livermore through JMP to build and deliver munition rounds downrange for the U.S. Air Force. This would have been impossible without the JMP’s prior MBX and modeling work.”
JMP investment in advanced manufacturing for a range of materials—explosives, metals, composites, and polymers—accelerates manufacturing and creates new materials with tailorable effects. “The lion’s share, but not all, of our advanced manufacturing work in JMP involves printing,” says Glascoe.
Leininger says, “One of the most exciting projects, in my opinion, was our work on additively manufactured pre-formed fragment packs, or ‘frag-packs’.” The frag-pack is an annular stack-up of cubes or balls driven with an explosive, resulting in a tailored shrapnel pattern. The munition typically requires painstaking hand assembly, potentially introducing error. The JMP turned to additive manufacturing to improve consistency and accelerate fabrication, enabling a greater range of fragment and packing shapes. Looping the computational teams back into this effort allows for a performance-driven design optimization of the frag-pack, explosive type, and munition. “The entire project was instigated by a short study in the JMP that proof-tested the technology, and now additive manufacturing of frag-packs is well established,” says Leininger. “Further, the frag-pack project demonstrates the program’s effectiveness as an incubator space for higher-risk projects. Someone at a JMP meeting simply asks, ‘Can we do this better?’ And we do.”
The Laboratory’s recent investments in materials for energy storage has opened new opportunities for JMP projects. Additive manufacturing of batteries and supercapacitors enables microstructural control over conductive materials to render high-energy-density components that maximize operating voltage while minimizing size and weight. Similarly, the Laboratory applies its expertise in 3D printing of silica glass to fabricate airtight glass ampoules for volatile chemical storage. Rapidly developing, testing, and adopting new technologies ensures research undertaken through the JMP remains at the cutting edge.
The JMP’s work with batch reactors represents a positive outcome for advanced manufacturing—but not by additive methods. Like many chemical production processes, high-explosives synthesis conventionally occurs in large, cylindrical batch reactors that churn up to 375 liters of chemical ingredients at a time. “Batch reactors are challenging to deal with, especially in the case of energetic materials,” says Glascoe. “Everything changes with scale—the required paddle speed, the dead zones that emerge with different materials, and so on. One must reinvent everything for each size reactor.” In contrast, flow mixers for substances such as LLM-105 could facilitate continuous mixing and monitoring as a stream of reactants progresses through a sequence of smaller reactors. “Flow mixers could allow us to parallelize the process, constantly monitor the feedstock, and make changes in real time,” says Glascoe. Safe and speedy production of energetics is a priority to everyone in the national defense sector, both DOD and DOE need these capabilities.
Resources for Research
The mutual benefit of technological advances and rapid response comes with mutual investment. “Matching funds is the secret sauce,” says Simpson. “For each dollar DOD commits to JMP projects, DOE offers the same. DOD affordably leverages the enormous capabilities of the NNSA Labs. The Labs and NNSA benefit from being challenged to develop and transition important science and technology. DOE and DOD are truly working as one team in this program,” says Simpson.
The ensuing challenge is to determine which research projects merit JMP resources. “What counts as a valid match?” says McCarrick. “I reasoned at least half of a project’s funding must come from existing DOE programmatic funding, which must be proved vital. If you could withhold that DOE money but still meet all DOD deliverables, then that’s not a valid match. This approach captures the basics but doesn’t overprescribe, keeping the program durable.” Funding reflects expertise, thus the significant JMP investment in advanced simulation and high-performance computing at Lawrence Livermore. “When funding comes from two sides, researchers don’t stray too far from their laboratory’s core competencies,” says Simpson.
The allocation scheme of doling out funds to DOE laboratories in equal tranches is important as well. As Simpson notes, providing equal resources safeguards the program. “Sometimes, laboratories stumble, or a project isn’t as fruitful as expected,” he says. “That’s the reality of scientific research.” With equally distributed funds, the impact of a stumble is confined to a segment of resources, and other laboratories can continue to deliver on their mission unhindered. While this “equal slicing” approach is unusual in government programs, Cross maintains that it fetches better results for the JMP. “Each laboratory knows it will receive the same amount of money, eliminating competition for funds. The result is exceptional collaboration—more so, in fact, than in any other projects I’ve personally witnessed working at DOD.”
Among longer-term benefits of JMP research is the development of people. JMP projects enable researchers to pursue high-risk science relevant to DOE’s mission yet with immediate benefits to the warfighter. Working on such projects can be especially rewarding for scientists motivated by seeing their contributions manifest in a tangible product. Relationships formed during JMP interactions have proven vital for growing the skills and perspectives of researchers. Leininger notes, “JMP is an opportunity to encourage our researchers to occasionally pivot away from their niche to broaden our impact.” The partnership breaks down the silos of individual departments and laboratories creating opportunities for new interactions among researchers and administrators. “I learned so much at every meeting with administrators—perhaps the most of anyone in the room,” says Cross.
Participants past and present acknowledge that the government’s recognition of how well the JMP operates is the reason the program has received consistent backing over four decades. “This line of work requires cooperation,” says Glascoe. “As a result of this uniquely deep and long-lasting partnership, the JMP helps create a national community.” On this point—the importance of a longstanding partnership for national security research and development through the JMP—DOD and DOE clearly speak the same language.
—S&TR Staff
For further information contact Elizabeth (Libby) Glascoe (925) 424-5194 (glascoe2 [at] llnl.gov (glascoe2[at]llnl[dot]gov)).
