Over penetration inhibiting and retaining mechanism
A retaining mechanism which may be launched to capture an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or the like. A projectile deploys dampener arms to stop projectile penetration into the target while forward retention arms deploy to prevent a backward removal from the target. The firmly embedded mechanism might feature tracking means or destruction means, or the target may be pulled away by the tether to be evaluated for information.
1. A penetration and retention projectile for use against a target ( 15 ), said projectile comprising:
a hollow, cross sectionally circular cylindrical plastic body ( 3 ), having an aft end of a first diameter ( 108 ) and a narrower diameter ( 106 ) in an open through hole at a front stop area ( 109 ) of said plastic body,
a threaded rod element ( 6 ) having an aft area plunger ( 201 ) of diameter fitting to the said first diameter of the plastic body but having a frontal area ( 202 ) of diameter fitting to said narrower diameter of said plastic body, and
wherein said threaded rod element is assembled within said plastic body such that a normally open compression spring ( 1 ) is located between said aft area plunger ( 201 ) of said threaded rod element and said front stop area ( 109 ) of the plastic body,
wherein a forward spike element ( 8 ) is attached to a frontal area ( 203 ) of said threaded rod element, and wherein normally retracted folding steel retention arms ( 5 ) having distal edges are attached to the forward spike element through a pin means ( 2 ), and said retention arms are normally folded so the distal edges thereon are captured in a third diameter hole ( 107 ) at the front of said plastic body while said retention arms overlay said forward spike element before and during a launch scenario of said projectile, and
a flat, cross sectionally rectangular shaped, plastic base ( 6 ) which is attached with the aid of a block ( 16 ) in a flush manner at the aft end of said plastic body ( 3 ), and
a plurality of normally folded, folding plastic dampening arms ( 4 ) attached at edges of said plastic base through steel pins ( 9 ), said dampening arms being functional to open during a launch scenario to deploy, and
wherein during a launch scenario, dampening arms ( 4 ) deploy, and next said projectile also completely pierces through a target ( 15 ), and
wherein, said projectile forward motion is abruptly halted when the deployed dampening arms become flush with a forward face of the target, which abrupt halting action causes complete compression of the spring ( 1 ) by the aft area plunger ( 201 ) of the threaded rod ( 7 ), and wherein such compression of the spring in turn allows forward spike element ( 8 ) with its attached steel retention arms ( 5 ) to advance sufficiently so that the retention arms distal edges are no longer captured within third diameter hole ( 107 ) of the plastic body, which further in turn allows the retention arms to fly open through inertia and deploy, and wherein the opened said retention arms then serve to capture the target ( 15 ) at a rear face on said target such that the projectile cannot thereafter be dislodged from said target.
2. The penetration and retention projectile of claim 1 wherein said dampening arms ( 4 ) are covered by a sabot means ( 350 ) while initially fired down a barrel, but said sabot means discard in flight during a launch scenario.
3. The penetration and retention projectile of claim 1 wherein said plastic base ( 6 ) has a tether ( 12 ) connected thereto through a detachable connecting means ( 10 ), said tether means for remotely holding onto said projectile through its said base.
4. The penetration and retention projectile of claim 2 wherein the projectile is used to safely disable a UAS or other system in a crowded environment.