The assimilation of the use of nanotechnology in the military field is promising, but there is a need for engineering that connects the academic achievements with the application

Says Prof. Leah Bem, the chief scientist of the aerospace industry who participated in the defense industries panel at the Nano-Israel conference. According to her, the aerospace industry has built a knowledge community specializing in nanomaterials and nanofibers 

The aerospace industry will not produce nanomaterials or nanowires but will be the final user of these materials. Says Prof. Leah Bem, the chief scientist of the aerospace industry who participated in the defense industries panel at the Nano-Israel conference held last week in Tel Aviv.
"On the other hand, we are open-minded to try to assimilate, test and investigate anything that can suit our needs. We are talking about two main areas. The first field is everything related to composite materials, composite nanomaterials, and the second field is the introduction of carbon nanotubes into composite materials to strengthen our materials - such as wings.

We are looking for composite materials for the drones. We also have a knowledge community for nanotechnology in general and nanomaterials in particular. The knowledge community has existed for seven years, we bring lectures, people travel to conferences and give lectures, we locate things that can be of use to us. The second area we are looking to expand our knowledge in is nanowires and nanoelectronics for Elta's modules."

Later, Prof. Bem presented an example of two projects. One project related to FRACTURE TOUGHNESS - increasing the reinforcement using ELECTORSPAN FIBERS inserted into the composite materials made of carbon nanotubes. "In the second project, we added particles of nano materials into the composite materials, which reduced the burning time of the surface."

We are looking for nano fibers for applications in photonics, electronics and radar systems. We want to get lighter, cheaper products with the same performance (or more). Light weight and size.”

However, Prof. Bem says that there is a big gap between the beautiful and basic work that is done in the research institutions or in the companies that produce nano materials and their assimilation into real products, not to mention that every new material that creates both nano and other materials needs to be ratified, checked that it meets the standards . The conclusion is that it is not yet ripe, it requires a very large joint work of the basic research with the consumers, we need to take care of the engineering phase that will bring the two parties together. Even if you have outstanding material and you don't know how to translate it into a specific product and give all the requirements, it remains in a beautiful article, maybe even a breakthrough but the assimilation in the military field is still far away.