Keep Moving, Nothing Obvious to See Here

Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - Navy awards Maine firm $12M research deal

the gobbledygook ...

Intermat plans to work to identify alternative and replacement materials for use in the nose tips of missiles for the Navy's Reentry Systems Applications Program, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The materials will be used in the nose tips of existing submarine-launched ballistic missile reentry systems, and the development and fabrication of thermal protection system materials and components (including nose tips, heat shields, control surfaces and antenna windows) for new Navy weapons.



What is Intermat? Intermat (Biddeford, Maine) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiber Materials, Inc. (Ohio, Maine, etc). Intermat is a small, (24 -30 employee) business (2006 sales $1.6 million) involved in high temperature graphite and polymer based composites for high value added, mission critical applications. Careful, no relation is claimed to the Crescent City (Calif.) site also involved in composite material (hmm, that is odd).


Here is another report with somewhat less gobbledygook:

Intermat, Biddeford, Maine, is being awarded a $12,177,959 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for further research and development to identify materials for use in Shape Stable Nose Tips (SSNT) for the Reentry Systems Applications Program. This contract is for the development of replacement and alternative SSNT materials for both existing Navy Submarine Launch Ballistic Missile Reentry Systems (MK4 & MK5) and the development and fabrication of thermal protection system materials and components (including nose tips, heat shields, control surfaces and antenna windows) for new/advanced Navy reentry systems and flight test experiments. ... This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Va., is the contracting activity (N00178-08-C-3004).



juicier details here:

Naval Surface Warfare CenterDahlgren Division intends to acquire continued research and development efforts directed toward the fabrication of carbon-carbon composite reentry materials for shape stable nosetip (SSNT) and control surface applications; development and fabrication of other advanced reentry materials; and supporting engineering studies. The proposed effort will support the Navy’s MK4 and MK5 SLBM Reentry Systems and will also encompasses research and development efforts for the fabrication of thermal protection system materials and components. This effort will be fulfilled through other than full and open competition with Intermat, 389 Hill Street , Biddeford , Maine 04005 -4335. Intermat is uniquely qualified to conduct this effort as Intermat along with its parent company, Fiber Materials, Incorporated, are the sole suppliers of carbon-carbon composite SSNT for the Navy’s MK5 reentry body.

I dug out more, and so can you. Let me know if you got around the Hex4 code in the upd program.

Submarines are always silent and strange.