Future Platform Materials Program

The objective of the Future Platform Materials (FPM) Program is to advance the Technical Readiness Level of advanced ferrous alloy systems identified as candidates for transition to future naval platforms. The primary role of this program is technical: to collaborate with entities within the government and in industry to plan, generate, and provide data necessary to evaluate ship impacts of new structural materials, provide data necessary to fulfill material certification requirements, and evaluate the trade space for materials in various applications both shipboard and for application to other stakeholder platforms.

In pursuit of these goals, the joint mission of the FPM program participants is to evaluate and characterize production scalability of next-generation structural steel systems, identify industrial production gaps for each alloy system that will need to be addressed to initiate certification activities and inform follow on prototyping efforts, and develop draft procurement specifications for applicable product forms including castings, forgings, plate, and welding consumables.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
June 2026

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is a research division of JHU that provides solutions to complex national security and scientific challenges with technical expertise and prototyping, research and development, and analysis. Since our founding in 1942 to aid a country at war, we have focused on applying cutting-edge research in a wide range of scientific and technological fields. Today, we seek to create defining innovations that secure our nation’s preeminence in the 21st century.

University affiliated research centers (UARCs) are research organizations associated with a higher education institution that are established to provide or maintain essential engineering, research, and/or development capabilities through a long-term, strategic relationship with the Department of War (DOW). Each UARC has a primary sponsor and a primary contract that define the limits of competition. APL’s UARC sponsor is the U.S. Navy. However, the Lab provides expertise and research on a wide variety of programs for an array of sponsors across the entire government.