The US Navy and the Naval Postgraduate School have accelerated expeditionary manufacturing trials using 3D printing, cold‑spray and CNC milling during RIMPAC and Trident Warrior to produce replacement parts on demand and train sailors in reverse‑engineering and fabrication. Early successes, including a reverse‑osmosis pump repair aboard USS Somerset, demonstrate rapid shipboard repairs, but officials say certification, quality assurance and logistics remain barriers to routine fleet adoption.
The US Navy is accelerating experiments in expeditionary manufacturing, using 3D printing and CNC milling to produce replacement parts on demand during recent fleet exercises. According to local station KSBW, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has turned a Monterey laboratory into a hands‑on hub for Exercise Trident, where faculty and students are working alongside sailors and other service personnel to trial metal and polymer additive technologies that could keep ships, submarines and aircraft mission capable without waiting on distant supply chains.
“Traditionally, if we have a system in the Navy that breaks, you would have to be repaired. If that part’s not readily available, you may have to go back to a manufacturer and create a new one,” Capt. Jeremy Gray of the US Navy told KSBW. “This technology, in the form of 3D printing or CNC milling, allows us to manufacture parts on site at the demand of the user.” KSBW’s coverage emphasised that the effort is as much about education—training students and sailors to reverse‑engineer parts and operate machines—as it is about operational repairs.
NPS and the Navy have been piloting these capabilities across multiple exercises. The Naval Postgraduate School reported that during RIMPAC and Trident Warrior 2024, teams of students, CAMRE engineers and FLEETWERX partners evaluated cold‑spray and wire‑directed energy deposition metal printers alongside deployable polymer systems. The school highlighted a practical win aboard USS Somerset, where on‑site additive manufacturing enabled a reverse‑osmosis pump repair that preserved the ship’s readiness and kept it on station during the exercise.
The Navy’s own press office framed these trials as part of a broader push to embed additive manufacturing in maritime logistics. Navy leaders told the service’s communications team that on‑demand fabrication shortens lead times and strengthens operational self‑sufficiency. The press office also noted that the Department of Defense’s Additive Manufacturing Strategy is guiding efforts to standardise how these capabilities are integrated into readiness planning and sustainment.
Private vendors and industry partners have been prominent in the demonstrations. SPEE3D said in a company statement that its Expeditionary Manufacturing Unit—using cold‑spray technology and associated post‑processing equipment—printed multiple cast‑equivalent aluminium and stainless steel parts in hours during Trident Warrior, allowing CAMRE engineers and joint teams to assess material properties and operational suitability. Similarly, Snowbird Technologies described the SAMM Tech containerised platform it supplied for evaluation, which uses metal wire directed energy deposition and FANUC CNC controls to avoid powder‑handling hazards and enable printing in metals from stainless steel to titanium and Inconel.
Separate shipboard trials have also shown what forward‑deployed manufacturing might look like. Commander, Naval Surface Forces reported that USS San Diego tested liquid metal jetting with a Xerox ElemX system installed in a 20‑foot container, producing aluminium fittings and sound‑powered phone caps that would normally take months to source. Sailors received training in reverse engineering, computer‑aided modelling and machine operation as part of the trial.
Taken together, the field experiments illustrate a clear set of advantages: faster turnaround for critical components, reduced dependence on long supply lines and the ability to adapt designs in the field. NPS framed the work as graduate education and applied research driving operationalisation—students gain practical experience while the fleet evaluates whether the technologies can be trusted for at‑sea sustainment.
But the pilots also expose the hurdles that lie between experimentation and routine deployment. The Navy press coverage and vendor releases alike stress the need for robust testing and certification: printed parts must meet material, dimensional and performance standards for safety‑critical systems. Post‑processing equipment, heat treatment, machining and quality assurance steps are often necessary to get printed metal parts to the properties demanded by naval applications. Logistics planners will also have to weigh container space, power requirements, consumables and the training burden for sailors and maintenance crews.
Industry participants have sought to address some safety and certification concerns. Snowbird’s wire‑feed approach, for instance, was positioned as a mitigation against the hazards and regulatory burdens of handling metal powders at sea. Nevertheless, independent verification of long‑term performance, corrosion resistance, fatigue life and compatibility with existing maintenance regulations remains essential before widespread fleet adoption.
The pilots are being staged deliberately: a mixture of shipboard demonstrations, shore‑based laboratories and joint service participation. According to the NPS account, companies such as XSPEE3D and Snowbird worked with CAMRE staff and service personnel to validate cold‑spray, wire‑feed and polymer systems under realistic operational constraints. SPEE3D’s reported success printing cast‑equivalent parts offers promising evidence that some mission‑critical components can already be produced offshore, but the company’s claims come from its own release and are subject to verification through formal Navy testing paths.
Operational benefits aside, proponents say the most immediate gain is the human one: sailors and students trained to identify, model, manufacture and certify parts create an organic sustainment capability that travels with the fleet. If those personnel are coupled with clearer acquisition and logistics policies that recognise on‑demand manufacturing, the Navy could reduce downtime and increase resilience in contested or austere environments.
For now, the Navy’s 3D printing programmes remain in the experimental and pilot phase. The demonstrations at Trident and RIMPAC point towards a future in which aluminium fittings, pump components and other low‑to‑medium‑risk parts can be produced within hours rather than weeks, but scaling that vision will require agreed standards, integration into maintenance doctrine and continued independent testing. The work at NPS and across industry partners shows the technical promise; converting that promise into everyday naval practice will be the next, more demanding step.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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