Program Summary
The capabilities and technical specifications required for Department of Defense (DoD) platforms are constantly changing due to unanticipated circumstances, needs and emerging threats. However, complex development and design cycles and the associated high costs of structural design changes for current technologies significantly limit our ability to rapidly and affordably evolve such systems.
The DARPA TFF program will address these challenges by seeking to develop a new composite material format (i.e., feedstock) and associated processing technologies (e.g., reconfigurable forming) to reduce manufacturing complexity and enable use of advanced materials for small parts weighing less than 20 pounds at costs competitive with aluminum. These technologies would enable greater efficiency in manufacturing advanced DoD small composite parts with decreased development and production costs.