The U.S. Army is highlighting the tools needed to maintain its power in combat

• Fleetwerx, the defense industry partner and the U.S. military are figuring out how to maintain the navy.

• A recent event explores how to build and acquire key materials for warriors quickly, cost-effectively.

• The process involves augmented reality, autonomous platforms and other future war technologies.

In future wars, the U.S. military may not be able to rely on traditional supply chains. Instead of flying or sailing in replacement parts, it was forced to build them on the spot, no matter where its troops happen to be – on land, sea or on remote islands.

Enter Fleetwerx, a project that rethinks how the U.S. military maintains its forces. Supported by Defensewerx and the Naval Graduate School, it is working with industry partners and the U.S. military to test and build new approaches to key segments.

The completed work combines 3D printing technology, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other emerging technologies to solve critical problems and overcome logistics issues.

In early May, Fleetwerx and its partners conducted an activity test to test how to build or repair parts anywhere under real-world pressure.

Take the stainless steel printing process as an example. Stainless steel is an important material for construction and repairing containers. Getting it at any time is key, but logistics is not ideal.

“This technology traditionally requires a lot of argon, so you have these large, huge green bottles that you are trying to transport throughout the Pacific Ocean,” said Lieutenant Fleetwerx and Marines.

“It's very expensive, and there are a lot of points you may not be able to get this gasoline,” he said.

The solution is a mobile nitrogen generator, an isolated unit inside a 10-foot container that can power the steel printer. This eliminates logistics challenges.

“I can put it on the boat. I can put it on an island that moves forward,” Radigan said. “I can do all of these things and I cut the logistics training.”

The process of FleetWerx usually starts at the top, with the commander or leader having a problem: a specific part or material is needed, and there are challenges in how to build it or put it where it is needed. Drawings and plans are quickly formulated and then 3D printed out of plastic for so-called forms, fit and functional testing, basically determining whether the product is appropriate and will be done the way it should be.

Building technology and ensuring process simplification is just one aspect of the work being done. The real point is to understand how it performs in actual conflicts and get the position you want.

The goal is to deploy these manufacturing machines to the field where they can produce parts on demand and transport them using autonomous platforms such as drones.

Radigan said the advantage of using an unwrinkled system is that the crew plane does not waste time and resources flying parts that can be carried by drones. As part of its Blue Water Marine Logistics program, the Navy has been trying this concept to reduce logistics demand for aircraft and pilots.

Radigan compared the idea to Amazon Prime's Phoenix drone delivery system. “It's the scale and speed we need to focus on, but in defense-related applications,” he said.

On the edge of last year’s Pacific exercise, students from the Navy, Marines, Army and Fleetwerx studied how additive manufacturing equipment such as 3D printing works at sea and on land.

Submarine repair and shipbuilding are more common and are important topics of the event. These industrial bases have been drastically reduced in the decades since the Cold War, and the goal of revitalizing them has become a top priority for military leaders, industry partners and the Trump administration. But the point is not just the shipyard. There is still work in this field.

During the May test event, Fleetwerx, a team from the entire army, and five private sector companies were present. Some companies, such as Firestorm Labs, focus on modular autonomous systems. Other companies such as Dynovas, Craitor and Phillips Federal have brought their manufacturing tools.

Dynovas’ pods can produce structural parts from metal, composites or ceramics in less than 72 hours, while Craitor has a deployable, deployable system that can be printed in mobile as well as in a range of temperatures and climates. Philips Federal has a container manufacturing system that can quickly build and repair critical parts.

Another partner, OverMatch, is building an artificial intelligence adaptive training platform. This involves the main core elements of the process, which ensures that service members can learn how to use machines to build what they need. This comes from training.

He said: “You may be great in traditional manufacturing, but I bring you one of these new machines, like 'OK, Shooting, where do I start? I have manuals here, but how do I start?''

Equipped with something like augmented reality goggles, one can receive clear instructions on what steps to take, pressing a button, and how to use the machine. To a large extent, the digitization of these and other processes is very useful for rapid construction and higher accuracy.

For example, in potential wartime environments in the Indo-Pacific region, service members may need to perform repairs on board and use machines that have never been touched before. Radigan added that the AR aspect helps reduce load.

Over the past few years, the Department of Defense has recognized that it needs to adapt to the way it is built and to use materials and parts for forward-looking forces. Part of this comes from fears that future wars will take place in a fierce environment, making logistics operations difficult. Recent defense strategies also involve this concept.

In 2021, the Department of Defense released its first ever additive manufacturing strategy outlines how 3D printing and other technologies can be implemented into larger forces’ workflows, as well as its connection to the industrial base.

The Department of Defense and Washington are widely concerned about whether the United States has supply and logistics chains to maintain its power, and how those need to adapt to the complexity and speed of future wars.

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