Defense Bill Funds Naval Composites

The FY 2005 U.S. Defense Appropriations bill includes $1 million (USD) for the development of composites for naval applications. The Structural Reliability of Fiber-Reinforced-Polymer (FRP) Composites in Ship Assemblies program is developing methods to reliably design and manufacture large FRP composite parts for ships. The program focuses on two main issues: the ability to produce large parts with consistent properties; and the ability to handle material property variability in ship design.