Dorothea Altorfer, wife of one of our faculty members, created an event at the Fete de la Nature in Arnaudville, LA
Renewed Research Efforts to Develop Non-Burning 40 mm Tracer Ammunition for U.S. Marine Corps
Thu, 06/08/2023 - 12:31pmPhysics faculty member Dr. Andy Hollerman and EESC doctoral student Noah Bergeron are part of a successful Phase One SBIR team that was written under Navy SBIR 23.1 - Topic N231-005, One Way Luminescent (OWL) Tracer Technology for 40mm Ammunition. Mr. Bergeron is also the Acting Director of the UL Lafayette Office of Innovation Management. Dr. Hollerman and UL Lafayette is a subcontractor to GlowSens, LLC to help develop practical non-burning 40 mm tracer ammunition using patented UL Lafayette technology. Former U.S. Marine Stefan Arnold, who has a great deal of experience with firearms and ammunition, is the principal investigator for GlowSens, LLC. Dr. Hollerman and Mr. Bergeron are the principal partners for this university-approved startup business.
Since the early part of this century, Dr. Hollerman and Mr. Bergeron has been involved in developing luminescence-based non-burning tracer ammunition. In 2013, UL Lafayette patented non-burning tracer ammunition (USPTO #8,402,896, Hybrid-Luminescent Munition Projectiles). For the last few years, UL Lafayette has successfully licensed this technology to Ammo, Incorporated (https://ammoinc.com) who has been selling Streak® luminescent tracers to the public. In 2022 alone, UL Lafayette received more than $123,000 in patent royalties from the sale of Streak®.
GlowSens was recently notified it had won a Phase One SBIR to develop non-burning 40 mm tracer ammunition using luminescent materials. The Phase One SBIR will be completed over a six month period of performance for $140,000. If the GlowSens and UL Lafayette team is asked to write a Phase 2 SBIR proposal, a Phase One Option worth an additional $100,000 for six months will be exercised. The total UL Lafayette share of this Phase One and Phase One Option is about $72,550 over twelve months. Work on this program should start in July 2023. It should be noted that a successful Phase Two proposal is worth about 1.8 million dollars to the GlowSens and UL Lafayette team.