1. The benefits of composites in naval shipbuilding

While composites first made their appearance in naval shipbuilding because of their good behavior in marine environments, other performances (both specifically military and non-military) have gradually been exploited to penetrate this sector.

They are linked either to the intrinsic characteristics of the materials, or to the advantages they provide in use, or to ease of processing. The table at 1 highlights the main interests of composites in naval shipbuilding, in some cases associating applications directly linked to the performance in question.

In this section, each of these characteristics will be examined in turn. It is understood that the information given below is of a general nature, and does not take into account the specific characteristics of any given family of composites....