CARLSBAD — A San Marcos company aims to revolutionize amphibious warfare with a product designed to address a common yet persistent issue.
La Costa residents David Ondash, a local businessman, and Kristian Zook, a lieutenant in the Naval Reserves, realized they shared an “entrepreneurial mindset” as they — and their kids — became friends.
Ondash had been working in telecommunications when Zook pointed out a prevalent issue from his years as a Navy SEAL: soldiers conducting operations that required transitioning from sea to land faced a conundrum.
The weapons critical to a mission on land were a liability in the water.
“Everybody realizes it’s a problem,” Zook said. “There’s a lot of close calls because you’re carrying all this dead weight in the water.”
He called the current solutions “kind of horrible” and left it up to the operator to navigate. Guns wrapped in waterproof bags can melt next to a hot barrel.
Gatorade bottles, pool noodles, yoga mats, and other improvised flotation devices Zook had seen used can be bulky, hard to remove when no longer needed, or limit the functionality of the weapon if left attached.
Ondash said that with armed engagements shifting from places such as Afghanistan and Iraq to theaters like the Pacific, where water is a significant factor, he anticipates a substantial need for a solution to the problem.
This led them to invent the Weapons Flotation Device through their firm, Green Dragon Ventures, which operates and manufactures the product out of a warehouse in San Marcos.
Through a system of rail-mounted foam units and a specially designed stock, the duo developed a system to keep weapons buoyant at the surface of a body of water. They received feedback from SEAL teams based in Coronado and leaned on Zook’s experience as they iterated with a Carlsbad-based engineer on the design.
Ondash said they started with a design for a Mark 48 belt-fed machine gun, figuring if they could float that gun, it would be a strong proof of concept.
“This one puts people in the most danger,” he said of the more-than-30-pound weapon often used to lay cover fire with 7.62-by-51 mm NATO cartridges.
They began with a 3D scan of a replica of the weapon to understand tolerances and mounting considerations. Through a series of material and manufacturing-process iterations, they developed pieces for the barrel and stock to achieve the buoyancy goals.
Green Dragon also received feedback from training detachments out of Coronado. That led to a notch added to the right side of the stock piece to make it easier to reach the trigger. They also heard that the larger, textured stock allows the cheek to rest in line with the optics.
But, Ondash said, the main feedback they received was: “Well, why didn’t we have this before?”
In addition to manufacturing at its San Marcos warehouse, Green Dragon sources all components from U.S.-based companies, in compliance with federal regulations. Some pieces are 3D printed; others are made in compression molds or on computer numerical control (CNC) machines.
The Weapons Flotation Device utilizes closed-cell, fire-resistant foam supplied by an Orange County manufacturer, preventing the pieces from overheating and soaking up water like a sponge.
The pieces are designed as a modular system that snaps in around other components, such as scopes and infrared lasers. Green Dragon holds patents to develop the flotation system for whatever types of weapons might benefit from it.
“Our superpower would be that we can look at a problem and come up with a solution,” Zook said. “And usually we can find a faster, cheaper, simpler way to solve a problem for people.”
