Most headlines focus on big-ticket weapons systems from enormous corporations like Lockheed Martin and Boeing—think Tomahawk cruise missiles, Patriot surface-to-air missiles, and THAAD interceptors.

However, small suppliers are vital to the Defense Industrial Base. Small businesses account for roughly 25% of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) prime contracts, and comprise about 75% of the R&D companies working with DoD. These smaller companies often provide specialized manufacturing and niche components, like armour plating, molded parts for armoured vehicles, communications technology, and subsystems for advanced weapons.

Small businesses also help ensure supply chain resilience. If a supplier is lost or a foreign source of components is cut off or compromised, having a diverse supplier base reduces risk of losing a mission-critical capability. In this unpredictable global landscape, that’s absolutely essential, making the US’s diversified, small-business heavy supply chain the envy of the world. By comparison, the UK Ministry of Defence currently only spends about 4% to 5% of their budget with small businesses. Across the entire European Union, only a few thousand small businesses are active in the defence supply chain, which is the source of anxiety-inducing fragility as global conflicts continue to simmer.

Accelerated Aging Testing for Global Defence Suppliers

Ballistic materials, including armour plating and machine components, must be able to withstand some of the roughest conditions on Earth: extreme temperatures, a range of humidity levels, UV exposure, and more. Accelerated aging tests play an essential role in materials development and production by simulating harsh conditions. Components like metals, plastics, epoxies, and adhesives must all meet durability and reliability standards to ensure user safety.

For years, the U.S. Army has had a Priorclave autoclave at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where it is used for accelerated aging and destructive testing of ballistic materials. The Tactrol control system included in every Priorclave autoclave can easily run cycles from 0 to 999 hours, which means test samples can be run for hundreds of repeated temperature and pressure ramps without human intervention. A military contractor can put a sample of their newest ballistic material in a Priorclave, push a single button, and walk away. Their Priorclave will run for weeks on end, simulating years of exposure to harsh conditions, and helping researchers and suppliers determine the resilience and lifespan of a product, and perfect production methods.

In recent weeks, we’ve found ourselves working with an increasing number of small European manufacturers looking for autoclaves to assist in testing and production of ceramic body armour plates, vehicle armour plates, ballistic materials for helmets, and other R&D-related work. 

Priorclave is Your Partner in Ballistics R&D 

Given the global expansions in military spending, seizing this opportunity for new contracts could be a boon for smaller suppliers. For example, the United Kingdom Export Finance (UKEF) department (the UK government’s export credit agency) is making plans to support UK firms in securing more than £12.5 billion in new export contracts by 2029, aiming to increase their spending with small businesses by at least 50%. They hope to achieve this goal by supplying £50 billion of new support, in addition to the existing £80 billion limit, which is the most significant UKEF allocation in its 100-year history.

Priorclave is pleased to help more small businesses engage in research and development for national defence. Priorclave machines are optimized for research, built using proven, energy efficient designs that emphasize ease-of-use, flexibility, and the robustness needed to handle even heavy research and production workloads. Every Priorclave autoclave comes standard with our advanced fully programmable control system, free lifetime technical support, and a low-energy/low-water easy-maintenance design optimised to minimise lifetime operating costs. An expensive, complicated, medical-grade autoclave is probably more machine than you need for accelerated aging and military R&D. Not only do these medical autoclaves consume more resources (including electricity, water, and floorspace): all those bells and whistles are simply more parts to maintain and mean greater risk of machine failure. Unscheduled downtime, maintenance, and repairs on these larger machines can dwarf the initial purchase price over time.

Work with Priorclave to right-size your business’s equipment and optimize both productivity and resources. Reach out to us anytime—our team of experts is ready to help you get the ball rolling.