RIMPAC makes largest-ever DOD show of 3D printing and autonomous delivery

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii — The Defense Department is conducting its largest-ever test of integrating advanced 3D printing with cutting-edge drones for speedy, seamless delivery during this summer’s Rim of the Pacific exercise in Hawaii.

Needed replacement parts have been delivered by fully and semi-autonomous drones — through 12-foot-high waves in some cases — while advanced 3D printers have operated aboard some ships in choppy seas, eliminating the need for delivery at all.

“This is the largest advanced manufacturing event across the Department of War ever held,” Rear Adm. Michael Mattis, director of fleet integration and innovation for Pacific Fleet, told reporters Friday at Schofield Barracks on Oahu.

He spoke at the exercise’s Joint Advanced Manufacturing Center, where media were given a glimpse of some of the cutting-edge technology being used to quicken the pace of logistics.

Duane Blank, field operations manager for San Diego-based Firestorm Labs, shows reporters examples of 3D-printed components produced for the Rim of the Pacific exercise during an event at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, July 10, 2026. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)

From the center, personnel field repair requests and then shepherd design, construction and delivery of components into the field.

“More machines, more locations, and really, for the first time, orchestration at a theater-wide level,” Mattis said.

Another speaker described the effort as “Uber for manufacturing, delivered at the speed of Amazon.”

The manufacturing center is assisted by the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education, based at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

The consortium brings together military, academic and industry partners to accelerate research into advanced manufacturing.

While 3D printing has been a part of RIMPAC exercises in the past, it has been central in this year’s drills.

Mattis laid out the scope of the work.

“This year, we have 38 countries, 31 surface vessels, five submarines, over 30,000 personnel, almost 180 aircraft, and over 1,100 personnel that are going to be doing our landings,” he said. “In that process, it’s an enormous experiment for us to figure out how to sustain the joint force.”

Duane Blank, field operations manager for San Diego-based Firestorm Labs, told reporters on Friday that the company had achieved a milestone during RIMPAC in the successful deployment of its containerized xCell 3D printing platform aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex.

The platform produced more than a thousand parts for the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and the Army while underway on the Essex — including in rough seas with waves up to 12 feet high, he said.

Meanwhile, this year’s RIMPAC marks the first time a deployable, containerized 3D manufacturing platform capable of producing metal components has been deployed aboard a U.S. carrier, according to the Navy.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is the lead vessel for the U.S. during the exercise, is currently at sea with a 3D hybrid-metal printer aboard.

On Friday, Ivan Avanesov, CEO of Los Angeles-based Splash Industries, standing beside the company’s 10-foot long Typhoon water surface drone, said the small company had achieved a “first” with the USS Essex.

In fully autonomous mode — meaning no human pilot was controlling the drone remotely — the Typhoon delivered a needed component to the Essex.

The drone “beached” itself within the amphibious ship’s intake bay as the ship moved at about 10 knots, Avanesov said.

The ship’s crew then sent cargo back to shore on the drone.

One of the company’s slightly larger drones navigated 85 miles through “terrible seas at night” to deliver parts to the Roosevelt, he said.

“That was done without a support vessel following it, and it was out for close to 24 hours,” he said.