Small-length scale multilayered structures are attractive materials because of their extremely high strength, relative to conventional laminated copmosites. In this talk we present results on nanolayered laminated composites of Al and SiC. The laminated composites were fabricated by physical vapor deposition (magnetron sputtering) of alternate layers of Al and SiC. The mechanical properties of the layered materials were characterized by nanoindentation and tensile testing. Tensile testing was conducted on a high-resolution micromechanical testing system. The influence of layer thickness on hardness and Young’s modulus of individual layers was quantified. The Young’s modulus and tensile strength of the composites were also measured. The nanolaminated materials exhibited much higher strengths than the monolayered Al materials. Some reasons for this behavior, as well as differences in fracture behavior will be discussed.