Air Force picks EaglePicher for batteries with 20-year shelf life for Minuteman III ballistic missiles
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – U.S. strategic weapons experts needed batteries for Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. They found a solution from EaglePicher Technologies in Joplin, Mo.
Officials of the Air Force Sustainment Center's Supply Chain Management Contracting Division at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, announced a $20 million contract to EaglePicher last week for missile guidance system batteries for the Minuteman III strategic missile system.
Military batteries
EaglePicher specializes in military batteries for missiles and munitions. The company's batteries and energetic devices are installed in hundreds of defense programs, including Paveway, Trident, Harpoon JDAM, TOW, Tomahawk, Patriot, Hellfire, THAAD, and Standard Missiles, company officials say.
The company's military batteries offer long-run-time, ballistic survivability, cold-temperature operation, and 20-year shelf life.
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EaglePicher also offers silver-zinc batteries for missile guidance control, telemetry, tracking, flight termination, and actuator systems. Silver-zinc batteries offer high energy to weight and volume ratios, and high reliability.
EaglePicher silver-zinc batteries offer safety; high-energy density; flexible configurations; numerous qualified designs; long-active life; can be remotely activated; quick rise times; and long-shelf life.
Ordnance applications
EaglePicher also offers energetic device for applications such as missiles, ordnance, cartridge- and propellant-actuated devices.
EaglePicher offers lithium silicon/iron disulfide (LiSi/FeS2) thermal batteries, which are widely used in missiles and munitions. Thermal batteries provide extreme high-energy density in a low volume and can be store up to 20 years making them idea for these weapons systems.
On this contract EaglePicher will do the work in Joplin, Mo., and should be finished by March 2030. For more information contact EaglePicher Technologies online at www.eaglepicher.com.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
