squeeze casting forces the aluminum into the alumina fibers and into the outer porous layers of the sic sic liner and provides a gradation in composition from the cmc to the mmc after completing the squeeze casting and initial machining the mandrel is removed by drilling or oxidation the barrel is then final machined and polished to provide a finished barrel the graphite mandrel is prepared as in example 1 and after the initial sic fiber winding instead of using a preceramic polymer to form the sic matrix the sic matrix is produced by chemical vapor infiltration cvi processing by subjecting the graphite mandrel to cvi using methyltrichlorosilane and hydrogen in a cvi chamber heated to 1000 u00b0 c which produces a sic matrix in the sic fiber array additional layers of sic fibers are then wound and the sic matrix produced either by cvi or the preceramic polymer the mmc and final barrel preparation are performed by overwrapping with alumina and squeeze casting as described in example 1 a steel tube mandrel was rotated with water flowing in its center and a plasma transferred arc pta system was used to deposit ta 50cr by weight in a molten state on the outer surface of steel tube mandrel and built up layer by layer until the deposited thickness.