3D printing is not new in the defense industry. But recent advancements in the hardware and materials plus the supply chain bottlenecks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have made the technology highly valuable and sought after in military applications. Let’s look at the roles 3D printing is playing in military organizations to reduce costs, enhance innovation, and ease supply chain issues.
Enabling On-Site Production of Spare Parts
3D printers can be deployed anywhere, including on the front lines or remote military bases, where they can be used to manufacture replacement parts for aircraft, naval ships, or even simple components on the base housing. This presents a big advantage in the supply chain because it eases logistics and makes the outposts more self-sufficient. It also eliminates the vulnerabilities of transporting expensive or critical spare parts across long distances on enemy territory. 3D printing designers and engineers in each base only have to reverse engineer these parts, pick the most suitable materials and 3D printers for the job, then prototype and develop them into the final product.
The British Army, for instance, currently uses additive manufacturing in the field in the largest NATO deployment in Europe. In 2024, the 9 Theatre Support Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, started using 3D printing to make vehicle spare parts using metal and plastic 3D printers, which are easier to transport on trucks between bases than the actual spare parts. This eliminated the need to send out parts for repair, which saved time and cost.
The American army also uses 3D printing to manufacture widgets that the original manufacturers no longer stock or are no longer under contract while the French currently have a large installation at Ecoles Militaires de Bourges that produces vehicle and system spare parts for operations outside the country. Naval ships and submarines are poised to be the biggest beneficiaries of this technology because they often operate remotely and in isolation.
Building Tools and Enhancing Equipment
While 3D printing can be used to manufacture the final products, it can also be used to produce the tooling and assembly aids needed to enable better and more efficient operation. For instance, most militaries tend to have a diverse range of birds from different manufacturers, each of which has custom or rare parts. Buying specific tools from the manufacturers or taking the planes to contractors for repairs can be costly, but 3D printing makes it easy to produce the tools required for maintenance at low costs.
Military organizations like the Royal Netherlands Air Force use additive manufacturing to build jet engine caps for safe transport and adjustment tools for choppers cheaply. In the front lines, armies can build custom radio or GPS brackets for bikes and quads to enhance their capabilities, or develop affordable turbine wrenches for maintaining submarines and underwater transport systems.
Developing Custom Medical Devices for Soldiers
Some of the most common but unintended consequences of war are casualties, which makes medicine a critical part of the military. 3D printing is also advancing this field by enabling medical practitioners to rapidly design, prototype, iterate, and develop patient-specific medical devices for soldiers injured on duty. Prosthetics are quite common but 3D printing on the field shows its strength and usefulness in making life-saving devices on the fly, such as modified surgical planning tools and orthotic devices to suit each patient.
What To Expect in the Future
The potential of this additive manufacturing technique is only starting to be tapped, so 3D printing will play a bigger role in the military in years to come. As material science, AI-driven software, and 3D printing hardware evolve, you can expect additive manufacturing to be more actively used in making high-performance armor and protective gear, barracks, shelters, and bunkers using locally available materials.
Researchers are also looking at 3D printing active electronics, which can be a big boost in the military because it enables critical spare part manufacturing on-site. MIT researchers have already demonstrated the ability to additively manufacture resettable fuses, which are key parts of active electronics that need semiconductors. It is worth noting that this leap is still far from attaining the performance of clean-room manufactured semiconductors, but such devices can be used to handle basic operations, such as electric motor speed control when coupled with PCB 3D printing.
Conclusion
Ongoing research and advancements in 3D printing are expected to advance this technology into uncharted territory, possibly even 3D printing semiconductors without needing advanced equipment. PCB 3D printing is already a reality. Companies like OurPCB already use this technology in their operations. So if this technology is scaled down to make tiny parts using advanced materials, it will transform how military organizations work and their operational readiness. Only time will tell.