I not too long ago posted about how the appearing commander of the U.S. Military Materiel Command (AMC), Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, informed interviewers on the Affiliation of the U.S. Military (AUSA) Annual Assembly that the Military is planning to step up its use of additive manufacturing (AM) for repairs. As I famous in that submit, Mohan echoed a sequence of current feedback made by Secretary of the Military Dan Driscoll regarding the department’s pressing have to ramp up its use of 3D printing for upkeep, restore, and operations (MRO).
Ultimately week’s AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pacific 2025 convention, Military officers continued to push listeners’ consideration to what the department is doing with AM, particularly for natural drone manufacturing. Breaking Protection stories that, throughout a presentation on the convention, Capt. David Velasquez, a commander in Hawaii’s twenty fifth Infantry Division (ID), informed the viewers that the twenty fifth had not too long ago 3D printed a first-person view (FPV) drone with deadly capabilities.
A U.S. Military Soldier assigned to the twenty fifth Infantry Division builds a drone in a First-Particular person View (FPV) Drone Working Course on Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, July 24, 2025. Picture courtesy of U.S. Military Spc. Wyatt Moore, twenty eighth Public Affairs Detachment, by way of Breaking Protection.
This can be a first for the division, and to my information, it’s also the primary time that the U.S. army has publicly disclosed such exercise:
”Our Lightning Labs group has fabricated a drone that we’re calling the Capstone drone, and in partnership with the EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] group, they’ve developed a detonation system for that drone in order that we will go forward and put deadly results on the right track,” Velasquez mentioned.
“[It’s] utterly inbuilt home right here within the twenty fifth ID, so [I’m] extraordinarily grateful to the troopers who’re extraordinarily motivated. They wish to get out right here and be proficient on their programs, and so they actually do work. They will put deadly results on the right track proper now.”
Given the aim of the convention, which focuses particularly on nationwide safety points within the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) area, Velasquez’s feedback had been contextualized above all inside a framework of AM’s significance to the U.S. army’s presence in INDOPACOM. As an outline on the Division of Battle (DoW) web site notes, “The US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) Space of Duty (AOR) encompasses about half the earth’s floor, stretching from the waters off the west coast of the U.S. to the western border of India, and from Antarctica to the North Pole.” It’s each the oldest and largest combatant command within the DoW.
In the identical article, Breaking Protection additionally detailed related feedback that Normal Ronald Clark, commanding normal of Military Pacific, made about AM’s particular significance to INDOPACOM points throughout his keynote tackle:
“Once we take into consideration the Indo-Pacific, we envision huge and numerous terrain, from dense jungles to coral atolls, from frozen Arctic tundra to tropical archipelagoes, from coastal plains to essentially the most majestic and big mountain ranges on the planet.”
In response to Clark, the “huge and numerous terrain” comes with logistical challenges that require AM to be addressed.
I briefly talked about the twenty fifth ID in a submit from September about the Oregon Military Nationwide Guard’s use of 3D printing as a central pillar in a brand new drone coaching curriculum that goals to drastically scale back the price of small drones, amongst different aims. Work by the twenty fifth ID was one of many major sources of inspiration for this system in Oregon.
Workers Sgt. First Class Gregory Mannen operates an RQ-28A Sky Ranger drone throughout coaching at Rees Coaching Heart, Oregon. Photographs courtesy of Main Wayne Clyne, Oregon Nationwide Guard Public Affairs Workplace.
In that vein, one can presumably anticipate that the opposite capabilities that the twenty fifth ID develops will, quickly sufficient, additionally make their method to different locales inside the U.S. army. The extra complicated — and extra deadly — that these capabilities get, the extra I believe we will anticipate cybersecurity to maneuver to the forefront of the DoW’s issues on the subject of AM.
For a while, I’ve discovered it incongruous that mainstream media sources specific such dismay about 3D printed weapons when 3D printed drones exist already. Whereas the twenty fifth ID labored with a chosen ordnance group to make its FPV drone deadly, the conflict in Ukraine — the laboratory that the overwhelming majority of those concepts originate in — has amply confirmed that you just don’t want something all that refined to weaponize a drone. As an illustration, again in June, a narrative in Protection Information described how in early 2024, a Ukrainian soldier original a working bomb out of plastic explosive and a Pringles can, then hooked up the bomb to a low-cost DJI drone.
In the meantime, in September, President Trump informed a gathering of U.S. generals that American cities must be used as “coaching grounds” for the armed forces to battle the “enemy from inside.” I query very a lot the validity of that sentiment. However, if that’s going to occur, and if Nationwide Guardsmen are shortly gaining the capabilities to 3D print objects that may be simply weaponized, the naked minimal of rational conduct can be to not solely make sure that the very best cybersecurity requirements are in place, however the people being skilled in these capabilities additionally should be vetted as stringently as attainable.
Granted, at this level, it’s utopian to anticipate adherence to any type of naked minimal of rational conduct. However as society’s normal footing continues to descend into insanity, it doesn’t appear unreasonable to assume {that a} counterbalance of excellent sense might ultimately begin to emerge.
Featured picture: U.S. Military Troopers from the twenty fifth Infantry Division use a Developmental Command Exportable Lab to assemble first-person view drones to be used throughout Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Heart-Exportable at Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, on Might 24, 2025. The potential enabled the deployment of greater than 100 FPV drones throughout this rotation. Picture by 1st Lt. Aylin Hernandez, twenty fifth Infantry Division, by way of DefenseScoop.
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