Military
Eric Pritchard gained a broad experience
in electronic instrumentation and nuclear tolerant circuit design while
working for the Navy. Pritchard designed nuclear tolerant circuits to
time the exo-atmospheric burst of a reentry vehicle. This time had to
be hardened to nuclear radiation by anti-missile missiles and by our
own missiles. This experience led to the evaluation of Navy systems
to nuclear threats and then to managing a group of engineers and technicians
in a nuclear radiation simulator facility to create and use computer
controlled instrumentation for both machine evaluation and experimental
data.
During a budget shortfall, the Pritchard’s
Instrumentation Group created the computer controlled instrumentation
to measure and map the magnetic fields of ships. This data was then
used to simulate the operation of sophisticated magnetic mines.
Pritchard was awarded two
patents for nuclear tolerant circuitry.