Home - US Joint Effort Tests At-Sea Metal 3D Printing, RIMPAC 2026 Defense US Joint Effort Tests At-Sea Metal 3D Printing, RIMPAC 2026 Aura Moreno 39 minutes ago 0 A US joint-branch effort deployed a SPEE3D cold spray metal printing system aboard the Canadian support vessel MV Asterix during RIMPAC 2026, marking the first at-sea use of the technology. The exercise examined whether mission-critical replacement parts could be manufactured at the point of need rather than sourced through a conventional supply chain. The work was carried out by the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), with the US Army Combat Capability Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) serving as government lead. The Tennessee Army National Guard and the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Defense Development and Applied Research Center (DARC) also took part, working through a partnership intermediary agreement with FLEETWERX . “The ability to produce, post-process, and evaluate parts while operating at sea has direct implications for readiness and sustainment,” said Lt Col., USMC (Ret.) Chris Curran, Program Manager at CAMRE NPS. “This effort brings together government, academia, industry, and operational partners to test advanced manufacturing where it matters most, in the hands of the warfighter.” Across the broader exercise, CAMRE deployed more than 50 advanced manufacturing technologies, with SPEE3D’s Expeditionary Manufacturing Unit (EMU) among them. RIMPAC 2026 was the 30th iteration of the exercise, running in and around the Hawaiian Islands from June 24 to July 31, 2026, and bringing together dozens of allied and partner nations, 40 surface ships, five submarines, 140 aircraft, and more than 25,000 personnel. Parts Produced Between Ship and Shore The teams delivered 32 metal parts through a manufacturing network spanning ship and shore. Twenty-four came through a reachback capability at the Knoxville Armory, and eight were built at sea aboard the MV Asterix using the EMU. Twenty-nine of the 32 parts were carried through to completion, including heat treatment and machining. The EMU relies on Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing (CSAM), which deposits metal powder at supersonic speed to build dense parts without melting the material. The unit pairs a containerized XSPEE3D metal printer with an integrated SPEE3Dcell post-processing and machining system, allowing a part to move from print to finished component without leaving the ship. Byron Kennedy, CEO of SPEE3D, described the deployment as printing metal parts “on an open deck in heavy seas aboard the MV Asterix, alongside the US Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy.” He added: “Across our deployments, we have now proven Cold Spray Manufacturing in sub-zero, tropical, battle-damage and at-sea conditions, the proof that SPEE3D works where supply chains fail.