Download or read book Materials Research to Meet 21st Century Defense Needs written by Committee on Materials Research for Defense After Next and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-03-11 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to achieve the revolutionary new defense capabilities offered by materials science and engineering, innovative management to reduce the risks associated with translating research results will be needed along with the R&D. While payoff is expected to be high from the promising areas of materials research, many of the benefits are likely to be evolutionary. Nevertheless, failure to invest in more speculative areas of research could lead to undesired technological surprises. Basic research in physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science will provide the seeds for potentially revolutionary technologies later in the 21st century.