Operating Status Summer 2024:

TBD (The lab has yet to determine whether the internship will be fully on-site, remote, or a hybrid.)

Student Requirements:

Students must be solely U.S. citizens and have the ability to obtain a security clearance. (Permanent residents and dual citizens are not eligible.) Students must also have their own transportation to the site.

Mission

To provide transparency to warfighting readiness through data analytics and assessment, engineering the Fleet’s Live-Virtual-Constructive training environment, and assuring the accuracy of measurements.

About the Lab

Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona (NSWC Corona), Range Systems Department, Expeditionary Systems Engineering Division (ESED), located adjacent to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton aboard Naval Weapons Station Fallbrook, has been providing ammunition and weapons in service engineering to the fleet since 1975. Working directly with the warfighter, ESED supports fleet logistics, training, and combat operations by providing cradle to grave test and evaluation, research and development, and acquisition expertise. With extensive hands on knowledge, ESED sets the standard for rapidly improving capabilities and correcting deficiencies of current and future munitions and weapons platforms. The Fallbrook detachment specializes in expeditionary systems engineering of ammunition and weapons for the Marine Corps, Navy and Army to improve performance through systems, test, reliability and warfighter-scientist integration.

What is unique about this lab?

NSWC Corona, Fallbrook Detachment works closely with our primary customer, the USMC warfighter. Many of our projects are designed to solve current real-world challenges being experienced by the warfighter. Our other projects focus on developing solutions used by ESED to support our Test and Engineering efforts in support of our mission. Bottom-line, past projects have often directly benefited the warfighter.

About the Internship

We are seeking motivated college students with an interest in expanding their knowledge and developing their hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Summer interns are provided with an environment that will foster their creativity, help them develop a problem-solving mindset, and give them the opportunity to participate in meaningful technical research while providing ground ammunition and weapons engineering expertise to the USMC and ammunition community. The work assignments at NSWC ESED Corona are interesting, rewarding and essential to the Department of Defense. Additionally, they will have an opportunity to demonstrate their career potential to a wide cross-section of the technical community, and gain experience in a professional workplace that specializes in STEM careers.

What will I do any given day as an intern at this lab?

Interns participate in lab functions in a number of ways including (but not limited to) assisting mentors with guided research projects; job and project shadowing with professional researchers; attending technical meetings; touring labs; observing ammunition live fire events; and interacting with a USMC warfighter.

What majors and disciplines are a good fit for interning at this lab?

The primary fields of interest are:

• Aerodynamics
• Aeronautical Engineering
• Aeronautics
• Applied Engineering
• Applied Mathematics
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Engineering
• Material Sciences
• Mechanical Engineering
• Mechanics
• Physics
• Robotics
• Statistics
• Systems Engineering

What will I learn as an intern at this lab?

As part of the internship, you will work in a small group with other highly motivated interns. The projects that the groups are working on are designed to help solution or contribute to a solution to either real-world warfighter challenges or other real-world technical challenges. You will get hands-on experience supporting our current projects, experiments, test and engineering evaluations, tool development, and other STEM activities under the guidance of experienced engineering and science mentors. You will learn research processes, protocols, brainstorm potential solutions, and learn about important and necessary ways we support our warfighters.

What kinds of projects do interns at this lab participate in?

Assessment of New Advanced Manufacturing Capabilities in Government, Industry and Academia: Expeditionary Systems Evaluation Division (ESED), as the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for the United States Marine Corps' (USMC) Ground Ordnance Inventory Program, has been tasked to evaluate the current state of technologies and the associated communities of practice for the Department of Defense, academia and the civilian sector as each relates to the additive manufacturing (AM) and necessary non-destructive technologies (NDT).

Surface Danger Zone (SDZ) 2.0 Target Design: Expeditionary Systems Evaluation Division (ESED), as the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for the United States Marine Corps' (USMC) Ground Ordnance Inventory Program, has been tasked with evaluating the Surface Danger Zones (SDZ) of various medium and small caliber munitions. ESED requires a target system that can allow for evaluation of various impact angles on both sand and steel targets. System requires ability to attach two high-speed cameras at 90°views to evaluate ricochets.

Advanced Manufacturing / Digital Manufacturing (AM/DM): Expeditionary Systems Evaluation Division (ESED), as the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for the United States Marine Corps' (USMC) Ground Ordnance Inventory Program, has been tasked to evaluate the current state of technologies and the associated communities of practice for the Department of Defense, academia and the civilian sector as each relates to the additive manufacturing (AM) and digital manufacturing (DM) ecosystem. Currently, ESED's AM Program is reviewing the processes and technologies associated with AM/DM and how to best utilize this disruptive technology to transform how its ground ordnance inventory is designed, produced, and serviced. Because AM/DM enable on-demand engineering and distributed manufacturing, the USMC has tasked ESED's AM Program to evaluate possible ordnance items and/or sub-components which may serve as likely candidates for inclusion into how this rapidly advancing technology sector may assist the warfighter.

Robot III: NSWC Corona, RS40 is a primary mobile ground ammunition and weapons test agency supporting the USMC and DoD. RS40 uses test equipment on live fire ranges to measure the performance of weapons and ammunition. These measurements create readiness and performance metrics across the military services. A large number of personnel are required to visually inspect, load, fire, collect, convert and collate weapon and ammunition data for command evaluation. Previous intern projects identified the use of automation to perform the visual inspection process. The project identified a device where the operator placed an item and inspection performed by using cameras to scan and record the component lot numbers and save 360° images of the item. The device was easily transportable and adjustable in order to inspect a wide range of munitions of various sizes and weights. The goal of this project is to explore further hardware, software, cloud services and processes needed for the automation of visually inspecting, loading, and firing of weapons and ammunition.

Advanced Manufacturing/Digital Manufacturing (AM/DM) File Translation and Sharing Optimization: Expeditionary Systems Engineering Division (ESED), as the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for the United States Marine Corps' (USMC) Ground Ordnance Inventory Program, has been tasked to evaluate the current state of technologies and the associated communities of practice for the Department of Defense, academia and the civilian sector as each relates to the additive manufacturing (AM) and digital manufacturing (DM) ecosystem. Currently, ESED's AM Program is reviewing the processes and technologies associated with AM/DM and how to best utilize this disruptive technology to transform how its ground ordnance inventory is designed, produced, and serviced. Because AM/DM enable on-demand engineering and distributed manufacturing, the USMC has tasked ESED's AM Program to evaluate possible ordnance items and/or sub-components which may serve as likely candidates for inclusion into how this rapidly advancing technology sector may assist the warfighter.

Mortar Accelerometer Mount: NSWC Corona, RS40 includes the Indirect Fire Mortars Commodity Team. This team is involved with 60mm, 81mm, and 120mm mortar ammunition test and evaluation. For both controlled lab-type and operational testing (i.e. actual users) there has been an initiative to collect worthwhile data to better characterize the phenomenon, including interactions between the mortar and its firing weapon. In particular, the team was originally seeking an alternative method to acquire drop time, which is defined as the time it takes for the mortar to drop from the muzzle of the guntube down to make contact with the firing pin. Other design considerations include USMC Mortar Operator’s preferences that the mount does not permanently change the weapon, and does not physically interfere with operators and procedures.

Surface Danger Zone Target Trailer Improvement: Expeditionary Systems Engineering Division (ESED), Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division (NSWC Corona) is in the final phase of developing the capability to conduct Surface Danger Zone (SDZ) testing of ammunition for the Marine Corps and Navy. In order to conduct this testing, RS42 has developed a SDZ target trailer which is currently capable of remotely configuring the target angle as well as holding the desired set point using microcontrollers and Radio Frequency (RF) modules. The system also employs overhead and side mounted cameras to collect high-speed video. Further improvements are required to the hardware and code to add increased accuracy in the control system as well as improved features.