Weapon Shock Simulator Patent Granted to Ascendant Engineering Services
San Diego – Ascendant Engineering Services (AES) announced today that it was granted a patent for its ground-breaking small arms weapon shock simulator technology. Patent 8,166,797 was awarded to the highly anticipated product, and is intended for use by the U.S. Military and other companies that regularly do business with the Department of Defense. The product was also recently presented to the prestigious NDIA Joint Armaments Conference in Seattle, Washington. AES is excited about the implications that its newest technology could have on the future of small weapons testing and certification.
AES created the Small Arms Weapon Shock Simulator to provide a more environmentally friendly product that could also offer substantial cost savings to the U.S. Military and Department of Defense contractors. Currently, the military requires soldiers to certify weapons for use. This certification process involves individual soldiers taking the newly configured weapon systems onto the field to be fired thousands of times. However, this method is considered grossly inefficient because of the cost of utilizing soldiers and the high cost of ammunition. Additionally, when weapons are fired thousands of times, toxins are released into the ground, atmosphere and potentially onto the soldiers firing the weapons. The Weapon Shock Simulators allow the military and other related industries to bypass the traditional methods of certification and use a machine instead. Currently, AES is the only small arms weapon shock simulator proven to recreate known live fire failures on units under test and the only weapon shock simulator approved for shock test in place of small arms live fire for the Department of Defense.
The U.S. Army already uses the Weapon Shock Simulator as a substitute for its live fire testing. And given the current trend in attempting to both minimize costs and create more environmentally friendly practices, the other branches of the military and Department of Defense contractors will likely follow the Army’s lead soon.
AES, located outside of Austin, Texas was founded in 2004 by a group of engineers. The company is excited about its future prospects and the opportunities its newly patented technology will create. “In the year since we launched the WSS, we have received tremendous feedback from customers and prospective customers about additional ways that we could use this technology to create new products that would gain immediate traction in the defense industry,” said Jon Noeth, co-founder and President of the company. “The patent gives us the comfort to move forward on some of those initiatives.”
