New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 21st Century, Materials Volume

摘要

In this publication, important materials issues identified by the New WorldVistas (NWV) Materials Panel are reported. The charter of this panel is provided in Appendix A. During this study, one or more members of the panel visited the organizations shown in Appendix C. From detailed discussions with technical leaders in these organizations, panel members attained an in-depth understanding of technology needs and potential technology developments relevant to the U.S. Air Force. In addition, several policy issues concerning how technology development is carried out within the Air Force (and within U.S. industry) were discussed and considered in detail by the panel. The findings and recommendations of the NWV Materials Panel are provided in this report. Major recommendations, in both policy and technology opportunities (near-term and far-term), are compiled at the beginning of the Executive Summary. The next two sections of the Executive Summary describe the importance of materials and suggest policy and infrastructure changes to foster materials development. The remainder of the Executive Summary consists of short sections covering the most important materials applications in the Air Force. The full report consists of chapters corresponding to each section of the Executive Summary; these chapters are intended to provide more comprehensive detail on key issues of interest to technical experts and managers of research and technology development. Advanced materials are crucial to the Air Force mission. This was a common theme borne out in discussions with each of the organizations visited by the panel. It is essential that this be recognized by Air Force policy makers, and indeed, by those who control the allocation of resources.