Materials Research to Meet 21st Century Defense Needs
National Materials Advisory Board Seminar=

Program Organizers
Lisa Klein, Rutgers University
Arul Mozhi, National Materials Advisory Board

Program Chairs
Steven G. Wax, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Alan M. Lovelace, General Dynamics Corporation (retired)

Principals of the National Materials Advisory Board study, Materials Research to Meet 21st Century Defense, examined Department of Defense (DoD) materials needs and R&D priorities in the five classes of materials: Structural and Multifunctional Materials, Energy and Power Materials, Electronic and Photonic Materials, Functional, Organic and Hybrid Materials, and Bioderived and Bioinspired Materials. Realizing the revolutionary new defense capabilities that materials science and engineering offer depends on more than just R&D; innovative management will also be needed to reduce risks in translating fundamental research into practical materials, and to promote cross-fertilization of scientific fields. This 3.5-hour session was comprised of six presentations.

Opening Remarks
Steven G. Wax
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Overview of Defense Materials Needs and Crosscutting Research Priorities
Harvey W. Schadler
General Electric, Corporate R&D Ctr. (retired)

Structural and Multifunctional Materials
Harry A. Lipsitt
Wright State University

The Structural and Multifunctional Materials Panel focused on emerging materials and the processes used for their fabrication, with special attention to the types of multifunctionality that could be designed into a material. This paper discusses DoD structural materials development approaches and goals. It highlights the importance of lighter, stiffer, and stronger materials, and the need for materials to operate for long periods at high temperature with predictable degradation. These materials are necessary to improve vehicle mobility, maneuverability, transportability, and survivability. The panel identified four areas of R&D opportunity. These four opportunities are expanded upon, with emphasis on design of structural materials that are truly multifunctional. Investments in these research areas should result in advances that would yield many of the necessary new DoD materials. Such advances will reduce development time and costs, modernize design criteria, predict and verify functionality, continuously monitor in-service health, and predict residual life.

Energy and Power Materials
John J. Gassner
Natick Soldier Center

The Energy and Power Materials Panel examined advanced materials and processes in this area. DoD needs for energy and power materials are many: among them, batteries for energy storage; capacitors for storage and release of pulsed power; fuel cells for efficient direct conversion of chemical to electrical energy; photovoltaics for harvesting energy; explosives for enhanced and tailorable lethality; and, microturbines for powering unmanned aerial vehicles. The panel identified key materials aspects of each major application, and derived broad themes for materials research. Areas identified were those where DoD funding would be needed due to the lack of commercial interest. Successful pursuit of these themes will provide numerous benefits to the DoD, including: reduced development time and cost; increased energy density in storage devices; improvements in lethality of munitions; practical energy-harvesting devices; and reduced weight of energy and power systems, which will reduce soldier and system payload.

Electronic and Photonic Materials
Julia M. Phillips
Sandia National Laboratories

The Electronic and Photonic Materials Panel examined research needs for defense systems in electronics, optoelectronics, photonics, and microsystems (including sensors). The innovation of the private sector allowed the panel to consider which defense needs could be met by making use of commercial developments and which require DoD investment. The panel examined the following military needs that would benefit from electronic and photonic materials: detection, identification, and defense against or avoidance of threats; high fidelity imaging signals; communications systems; compact systems to transmit at very high power and high frequency; enemy identification and monitoring; dynamic camouflage/stealth; and health monitoring of equipment and personnel. While this panel considered a wide variety of military needs from several vantage points, ranging from individual devices or components to entire miniature systems, a number of common themes emerged that point to important areas for research. These research areas will be presented.

Functional Organic and Hybrid Materials
Frank E. Karasz
University of Massachusetts

The Panel on Functional Organic and Hybrid Materials addressed general concepts that will emerge in the next two decades. The panel predicts that organic materials of high and low molar mass will continue to increase their penetration of military materials applications because of the clear advantages they have in terms of functional flexibility, low weight, and facile processibility--all leading to economic gain over the life cycle. The panel identified a number of research opportunities that will be presented. If these opportunities are pursued, the panel expects that: modeling will become a routine first step in organic materials development; synthesis and processing of organic materials will tend to converge; polymers of high purity with controlled microstructure will become available; aggregates of organic materials on the nanometer scale will yield new opportunities; combinations of low- and high-molar-mass organic molecules with inorganic materials will become widespread.

Bioderived and Bioinspired Materials
Michael Jaffe
New Jersey Center for Biomaterials and Medical Devices

The Panel on Bioinspired and Bioderived Materials focused on how the integration of biology and the physical sciences could result in greatly improved, lightweight, multifunctional materials for DoD. Materials derived from biology, for example, biological molecules as the active element in sensors, and materials inspired by biology were considered. The potential impact of applying biological paradigms to the development of materials to meet DoD requirements was reviewed in depth. This paper will present specific DoD opportunities in the areas of structural materials, functional materials, materials for chemical and biological warfare, wound healing, and human performance enhancement. The panel concluded that: biological toughening mechanisms offer a route to next-generation lightweight, tough materials; preservation of biological function of biological molecules is a key driver for next generation of biologically-enabled devices; and in-vivo detection strategies to identify toxins and pathogens, including masked agents, may make it possible to detect a single agent molecule.

Closing Remarks
Alan M. Lovelace
General Dynamics Corporation (retired)