The Use of Multifunctional Composite Materials in Large Scale Naval Applications

The U. S. Navy has a long-standing history of ship design using metals. With the improvements in weapon systems, it is becoming increasingly critical to design ship structures not only to satisfy the structural loading but also to exhibit additional multifunctional properties. This is becoming evident with structures such as the Advanced Enclosed Mast Sensor System, AEM/S, which was installed on the USS Radford. This structure was designed to house radar systems and allow the passage of certain radar frequencies through the structure while simultaneously not allowing the penetration of radar at other frequencies. In addition, the structure was designed to reduce the ship’s detectability. This paper will present a summary of the large-scale composite manufacturing that is being considered for Naval Structures. These structures are being manufactured using low-cost manufacturing techniques and are incorporating multifunctional characteristics in addition to meeting the structural requirement of the application. This paper will provide a historical discussion on the use of composite applications in the surface fleet.