U.S. Army Ground Vehicle Technology: The Uses of Advanced Composite Materials for Vehicle Structural Applications

The Army has been developing lightweight composite materials for a variety of uses for the last 25 years. This paper will discuss the history of the Army's development efforts on the use of composite materials for ground vehicles, and where it is headed in the future. With the upcoming modernization of the Army's ground forces for the 21^st Century, it is expected that composite materials will may play a significantly more crucial and prolific role. The Army's new Future Combat System (FCS) has very demanding criteria and composite materials may help to meet these requirements in the area of weight, deployability, mobility, signature management, and ballistic protection. Additionally discussed will be the multi-functional capabilities that can be readily added to composite materials to give the US Army increased superiority.