A New Era for Secure, Scalable Additive Manufacturing in Defense

This week’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) marks an inflection point for advanced manufacturing in the United States. For the first time, additive manufacturing is formally codified as critical infrastructure within the Department of Defense, governed by clear standards around security, provenance, qualification, and scale.

The implications are far-reaching. They affect how parts are designed, certified, produced, and sustained across aerospace, defense, naval operations, and ground systems. Just as importantly, they redefine what it means to be a trusted manufacturing platform in national security environments.

Security, Software, and Sovereignty Are Now Statutory

Perhaps the most consequential change is the introduction of a clear prohibition on the use of certain foreign-made additive manufacturing machines within the Department of Defense.

Under the new law, the DoD may not operate or procure additive manufacturing systems that are manufactured in, software-developed in, or networked through entities domiciled in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, absent a narrow, case-by-case national interest waiver.

This provision reflects a broader recognition that additive manufacturing systems are tightly integrated combinations of hardware, software, materials, and data flows. Control of design files, process parameters, telemetry, and cloud connectivity is inseparable from cybersecurity, intellectual property protection, and supply chain integrity.

In effect, the NDAA formalizes what many defense organizations have already concluded operationally: secure-by-design manufacturing platforms are a prerequisite for scale in national security applications.

A Clear Distinction Between Industrial and Consumer-First Platforms

As additive manufacturing adoption has broadened, so too has the range of systems entering the market. Many platforms have been optimized for accessibility, speed, and cost—well suited for prototyping or general-purpose use.

Defense and industrial applications, however, impose fundamentally different requirements. These environments demand controlled software stacks, auditable data flows, secure networking, and deterministic process control. Repeatability, traceability, and compliance are baseline expectations.

The NDAA reinforces this distinction by aligning procurement and qualification frameworks around industrial-grade platforms designed for regulated production.

From Experimentation to Infrastructure

Several provisions in the NDAA move additive manufacturing decisively out of the pilot phase and into sustained operational use.

The Department of Defense is now directed to qualify and approve up to one million additively manufactured parts, spanning new systems and legacy platforms with diminishing manufacturing sources. Qualification processes are being modernized to emphasize performance-based validation, shared test data, and streamlined requalification, which reduces duplication across military branches and accelerates deployment timelines.

At the same time, the DoD is establishing dual-use advanced manufacturing hubs, designed to bridge prototyping and fielding while integrating secure infrastructure, classified environments, material testing, and digital data repositories. These hubs are intended to support real production benchmarks.

For manufacturers already delivering production-grade additive solutions into regulated environments, this shift validates a long-held view: additive manufacturing is most valuable when it is treated as an industrial system.

Accelerating Sustainment and Readiness

The legislation also prioritizes additive manufacturing as a readiness enabler, particularly in Navy surface ship maintenance and broader sustainment operations. On-demand printed parts are explicitly recognized as a means to reduce downtime, mitigate supply chain risk, and address long lead times.

Importantly, the NDAA establishes open qualification pathways with defined review timelines, creating clearer mechanisms for proven technologies to move from proposal to operational use. This approach rewards platforms that can demonstrate reliability, security, and real-world performance at scale.

What This Moment Signals

Taken together, these provisions represent a durable policy shift. The Department of Defense is aligning standards, cybersecurity requirements, qualification frameworks, and sustainment strategy around additive manufacturing as a core capability.

The message to industry is clear:

• Domestic sourcing and governance matter.
• Software control and data security are foundational.
• Qualification and inspection must scale across programs and services.
• Additive manufacturing must deliver repeatable, auditable outcomes.

The NDAA defines the conditions under which innovation can be trusted, deployed, and scaled. That clarity strengthens national security, supports resilient supply chains, and accelerates the maturation of digital manufacturing across defense and industry.