The unit-cell analyses will guide the design of producible composites, the company says. Weidlinger adds that it is consulting with “established manufacturers of naval composite materials, to ensure the AMM microstructures can be manufactured at full scale and low cost.”

There are some caveats, however. The exact system will be platform-dependent and the resulting cloak is a heavy garment for the sub—and the Navy better get used to that idea, Cipolla says, if it wants to pursue this technology.

“Any cloak technology worth its salt is going to be heavy,” he says, adding that there will be no “spray-on coating.”

The software the company has developed for the technology has reached technology readiness level (TRL)-5, he says. The material maturity is about a TRL-4 and the overall concept is at a TRL-3, Cipolla says.