Qualifying Light, High-Performance Materials for Airborne Expeditionary Forces (AEF)

"Develop a rapid materials-selection strategy and demonstrate efficiency on critical high-energy laser components and vehicle structures. The chemicals used in chemically-driven laser systems are incompatible with many materials used in aircraft andspacecraft. In addition, materials that have been used for ground-based chemical laser systems pose extreme weight penalties for aircraft and space applications. Conventional material evaluation techniques require long test periods and are laborintensive. The objective of this project is to develop rapid, high-confidence materials selection/evaluation techniques to predict material performance for critical aircraft/spacecraft laser systems, in a compressed amount of time."