About ADMIRABLE

The ADMIRABLE project is a research initiative
developed within the Operational Processes Program
and the Shipyard 5.0 initiative.

ADMIRABLE focuses on simultaneously enhancing performance in the most critical aspects for the navies of the future: reducing size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) while improving stealth, thermal and fire resistance, emission transparency, and ballistic protection. These goals will be pursued by designing new lightweight multifunctional materials for key ship components, enabling future structures to optimize their acoustic, electromagnetic, and mechanical functionalities, withstand high temperatures and fire caused by weapons, and consequently minimize the vessel’s vulnerability. The material proposed by ADMIRABLE is expected to fundamentally meet different high-level requirements (HLR) defined by EU navies and their shipyards.

ADMIRABLE aims to provide protection against systems operating across a wide range of electromagnetic bands (visible + infrared + radar) simultaneously, thereby reducing the ships’ susceptibility to external threats.

Goals

ADMIRABLE intends to match or exceed the mechanical performance of current ship structures located above the main deck by reducing their weight through the selection of lower-density materials, aiming to improve the vessel’s operational capabilities (speed, energy efficiency, etc.). Additionally, a specific armored material is to be developed to enhance ballistic and explosion resistance in critical parts of the ship, thereby improving its vulnerability characteristics.

Fire resistance and thermal behavior will be thoroughly analyzed to ensure that the composite material offers, at a minimum, the same performance as the material currently in use (structural steel).

Innovative, scalable, fast, and flexible manufacturing processes will be explored to reduce current production times and the high costs associated with manufacturing complex geometries or using different materials (mold costs, specific drawbacks, etc.). The goal is to identify the optimal manufacturing process (advanced techniques such as additive manufacturing) for this type of material.

Additive techniques and other advanced methods to be studied allow for greater customization of components (individually finished products), enabling the cost-effective production of individual parts without requiring a large stock of material (small production runs). Moreover, these systems are flexible, based on continuous production environments, and incorporate advanced technologies to enhance production processes (flexible switching between models and geometries).

Work Packages

The project is structured in four phases

Knowledge Generation: System engineering and requirement definition.
Knowledge Integration: Material solutions and supply chain development.
Studies: Environmental, fire, and circularity assessments.
Design: Functional layer design for stealth, thermal, ballistic, and fire resistance

See more →