Home / Industrial Additive Manufacturing / Defense / Firestorm Labs prints more than 1,000 parts aboard USS Essex Aerospace AM Defense Drones/UAV Firestorm Labs prints more than 1,000 parts aboard USS Essex The defense manufacturer completed its first at-sea demonstration of expeditionary additive manufacturing during RIMPAC transit Joseph Caron-Dawe August 7, 2026 1 minute read Stay up to date with everything that is happening in the wonderful world of AM via our LinkedIn community. Firestorm Labs ‘ xCell containerized manufacturing platform produced more than 1,000 parts aboard the USS Essex during a two-week transit to RIMPAC 2026 in Hawaii, marking the first maritime demonstration of its expeditionary manufacturing capabilities. The deployment was part of the Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS) Consortium for Applied Manufacturing and Rapid Experimentation (CAMRE) RIMPAC distributed advanced manufacturing network, facilitated by FLEETWERX . Operating in sea states peaking at 5, with waves up to 12 feet, xCell printed mechanical test components, parts for Firestorm’s Squall first-person-view quadcopter and other uncrewed aerial systems , and repair parts requested by the ship’s crew. A new use case Among the standout parts was an Apache Rotor Guard Droop Stop, designed to protect the aircraft’s rotor system during the first at-sea Apache operations conducted with rotors mounted, in some of the roughest seas off Southern California in five years. Firestorm said an unprotected rotor system risked damage to the $500,000 main rotor and its blades, each costing $230,000 to replace. The company also produced a Life Preserving Unit vacuum adapter, developed from a sailor’s concept, after no adapter was known to exist for testing the inflatable units. Drones built at sea Firestorm printed and assembled 12 Squall FPV drones aboard the Essex , training soldiers, sailors and Marines, including members of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, on assembly and flight operations. Those Marines later flew the drones as adversary aircraft during a three-day counter-drone exercise at Makua Military Reservation in Oahu, supporting NPS CAMRE experimentation at RIMPAC. “The Indo-Pacific logistics problem is real, and most of the answers on offer live in a pitch deck,” said Dan Magy, Chief Executive Officer at Firestorm Labs. “We printed flight-ready aircraft and the parts a crew actually needed, in the conditions they’d actually face. That’s what manufacturing at the edge looks like when it works.” Tags future Joseph Caron-Dawe August 7, 2026 1 minute read