A New Additive Manufacturing Strategy for the UK Defense Industry

April 11, 2025

The U.K. Ministry of Defense outlined its vision for expanding the use of additive manufacturing for their defense industrial base in this graphic published in their new strategy document. (Image: U.K. MoD)

The U.K.'s Ministry of Defense (MoD) published a new 17-page strategy outlining their vision for the wider use of advanced manufacturing and specifically additive manufacturing (AM) for the U.K.'s defense industrial base.

According to the strategy, MoD's goal is to incentivize defense suppliers and manufacturers to expand their use of additive manufacturing to produce vehicle parts and components as well as new platforms, technologies and weapons. The strategy cites MoD's experience in supporting Ukraine in the ongoing conflict with Russia as one of several factors driving the need for the use of more additive manufacturing by U.K.-based defense companies.

"Experience in Ukraine has also demonstrated that ‘speed of repair’ is as vital as ‘speed of delivery’. Because of this, U.K. defense need to consider new manufacturing methods that can address these issues, especially for hard-to-source items and replacements for obsolescent parts," MoD notes in the new strategy.

MoD outlines four interconnected pillars to provide the foundation of their advanced manufacturing strategy, including design sources, a digital thread, and certified production capabilities. The fourth pillar focuses on the development of additive manufacturing in support of mobile production that can be performed closer to the point of consumption, an effort that the U.S. Army has also been pursuing through recent demonstrations and evaluations with several additive manufacturing machine providers .

According to the strategy, the design sources are where the information required to manufacture a part is generated. MoD is also establishing new policies to incentivize UK defense companies using parts that are designed for additive manufacturing from the outset or parts that can be reverse engineered to enable a part that is no longer available to be additively manufactured.

The strategy further describes the digital thread portion of its interconnected pillars as enabling the secure transmission of information required to manufacture a part from a design library to a production site. Finally, the strategy connects certified production capabilities that are qualified against international standards to mobile production "spokes" that are able to produce parts closer to the point of consumption.

The strategy also highlights the need for clear policy guidance and direction from MoD that will enable expanded use of additive manufacturing within the U.K.’s defense industry.

"Adoption of AM within defense industry has been variable and there is no ‘customer clamor’ or demand signal emanating from the MoD to encourage further or longer-term investment. This needs to be addressed with clear policy direction that seeks adoption of AM at the design stage and consideration of AM during in-service support," the strategy notes.

A 3D-printed replacement part for a military vehicle produced by the MoD's Project TAMPA program. (Image: U.K. DE&S)

The MoD also addresses its own internal challenges in adopting the use of additive manufacturing, noting that most of the additive manufacturing machines being used by MoD units right now lack "any through-life provision of support, a training pipeline, reference to qualifications and have ad-hoc access to consumables."

One program that has provided valuable insights into the potential cost savings as well as the challenges of adopting additive manufacturing for the MoD in recent years was the Project TAMPA initiative led by the agency's Defense Equipment & Support (DES) division. The strategy notes that Project TAMPA exposed "the reality that within the MoD, cost comparisons continue to be made back to the traditionally manufactured part. Often produced many years ago, they do not account for wider lifecycle costs, or the costs of non-availability of the parent platform/ equipment."

MoD notes that this challenge can be amended through the following actions:

Consistent application of the MoD’s policy for capitalization.
Industry working to reduce the costs of manufacturing.
Consideration of the cost of loss of availability against the cost of a part.

There is also a call for the use of more recycled polymers as a feasible method of creating feedstock for a limited range of additive manufacturing applications. "Recycling of high-end scrap metals has also proved to be a technically and financially viable opportunity to develop AM powder feedstock to potentially reduce reliance on supplies sourced from outside the U.K. This should be explored further, as should wider opportunities to improve environmental sustainability," the strategy notes.

The next steps for MoD will focus on developing a new program of work that will detail the outputs, delivery responsibilities and resources required to achieve the strategy's key priorities.

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