The U.S. Army does not own the IP for many of the parts that go into its weapons and platforms, making it difficult to easily or affordably reverse engineer and 3D print such parts when they need replacing. Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, acting commander of Army Materiel Command, said the service may proceed with creating parts independently when vendors cannot provide necessary technical data quickly enough.
Mohan cited an example where a vehicle was disabled by a faulty tire valve, but obtaining repair data required navigating multiple supplier tiers before reaching the actual manufacturer. “We can’t live like that,” Mohan said during an interview at the AUSA conference. He suggested the Army needs a model allowing it to “buy the rights for just the part we need to print” rather than entire systems.
The Army has demonstrated progress in additive manufacturing, including a current initiative to create 60 parts in 60 days through one of its 3D printing “sprints.” The service has also established a digital repository containing designs for basic items like fan grates and door handles that soldiers can download and print in the field through tactical networks.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll highlighted cost savings from independent manufacturing, showing a Black Hawk fuel tank fin the Army reverse-engineered and produced for just over $3,000 compared to the vendor’s $14,000 replacement cost. “They 3D scanned it, reverse engineered it, printed prototypes and conducted structural validation in only 43 days,” Driscoll said, adding that the Army’s version was “300 percent stronger and 78 percent cheaper.”
In September, Driscoll authorized soldiers to make battlefield repairs within established risk guidelines, replacing a previous “one size fits all” approval process. Under the new system, low-risk repairs can proceed without higher-level approval, while medium and high-risk fixes still require lengthy authorization processes.
Source: breakingdefense.com