Q&A

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is currently pursuing a research program that applies advances in materials designed and engineered at the nanometer scale to help improve military capabilities. Nanotech Briefs posed the following question to Dr. Steven McKnight, a materials scientist at the ARL.

What is the US Army’s interest in nanotechnology?

Dr. McKnight: We, like the rest of the scientific community, are extremely excited by the promise of nanotechnology and specifically, we believe that the control of matter at the nanometer-length scale will provide revolutionary capabilities in some of the products that are being used or are anticipated for use by soldiers. We view it as a breakthrough in technology and science that will provide capabilities to soldiers that presently don’t exist or provide substantial improvements to those that they are using now. The Army has had a longstanding tradition of being at the forefront of a number of technologies – everything from optics for lasers to computing to aerodynamics – and I think this is the latest emerging area, although it is nascent, where we see tremendous payoff for products for soldiers.

We have three major thrust areas that the Army is looking at: nanomaterials by design; nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and nanosensors; and nanobiotechnology. My area of expertise is in nanomaterials by design. I am a materials scientist by training and that’s the area in which my group and I carry out our research.

The three thrust areas in nanomaterials are: the synthesis and characterization of new nanomaterial building blocks, which includes new organic or polymeric-based nanomaterials; new inorganic-based nanomaterials (ceramics, nano-metals); and the generation, characterization, and assembly of nanomaterial building blocks. We also have two generic thrust areas. We are looking for structural applications, as well as what we call functional or multi-functional applications for these building blocks.

I see nanotechnology supporting and enabling the mission of the warfighter in two primary areas. I think that we are going to see lighter-weight materials that will lead to lighter-weight equipment. The advances that are being made in developing lightweight materials derived from nanotechnology findings will work its way into reducing the weight of the equipment that our soldiers have to bear. So, we can certainly enable greater deployability and greater mobility on the battlefield.

The other thing I believe we will be able to do is to increase capabilities. I think the pervasiveness of nanotechnology is going to be such that our soldiers are going to have much more awareness on the battlefield and they will have a clear awareness of fellow soldiers. The pervasiveness of sensors is going to allow for battlefield (situational) awareness to increase tremendously through nanotechnology.