Lead Researcher Kris Villez explained,
“There is a vast opportunity space to make these machines more intelligent and more responsive. In the end, we’d love this to work like baking bread: You set the oven temperature, put in your dough, and return when the timer goes off to see if it’s done. You don’t have to monitor the oven temperature in real time throughout the baking.”
University of Tennessee graduate student Chris O’Brien sets up the 3D-printing apparatus at ORNL to test a new sensing and control technology for creating large objects with plastic composite. Image courtesy of Alonda Hines/ORNL, US Dept. of Energy.
Large-format polymer 3D printing has been important to the US for decades now. On the one hand, it can be used for formwork for construction. But it can also be used to make many boats very quickly and at much lower cost than is done now. In 2021, we said that,
“The U.S. is almighty on the sea, but automated construction of autonomous sea vehicles can negate American marine power. The U.S. has hundreds of billions tied up in its carriers, and a fleet of polymer UUVs or surface vehicles could negate this force. In the Persian Gulf, Iran already routinely menaces much more sophisticated U.S. ships with its polymer gunboats.”
We looked in May of 2022 at the potential and importance of 3D printed drone boats, and we said then that this capability being offered to Ukraine,
“A curiosity in a laundry list of weapons given to Ukraine, this may seem like small beans compared to Howitzers and other weapons. However, this is an incredibly significant move. Russia should have near-unrestricted access and dominion over the Black Sea. However, due to the specter of these drones, it does not. It would take many millions of dollars in funds and thousands of individuals on conventional ships to make Russia worry about its position in the Black Sea. It would also take many months of training for Ukrainian sailors to learn to operate the high-tech Christmas trees that are contemporary frigates and other warships. It would take many years to build new surface ships as well. With conventional weapons, there is no solution or path to a solution whereby Ukraine would be a credible threat to the Russian Navy. But, with these new expendable drones, it is.”
The first Russian ship was sunk in October of that year, and now Ukraine has disabled around a third of the Russian Black Sea fleet with these drones. Ukraine, a country without a meaningful Navy, has come close to neutralizing the once mighty Russian fleet in the Black Sea with these drones. So 3D printed drone boats are not a luxury or a cool science project, but a war-winning weapon. And as we argue in the Hilux for the Seas post recently, the US could and indeed must turn to 3D printing to develop these drone boats at scale.
At the same time, 3D printing of formwork for energy installations, as well as for missiles and hypersonics, is very important. A lot of the roads towards a functioning US military go through 3D printing, and getting large-format polymer right seems more important every day.
The growing connection between drones, defense, and additive manufacturing will be a major focus of the Additive Manufacturing Strategies UAS: The Present and Future of Drone Manufacturing event on June 30, 2026, where industry leaders will discuss how 3D printing is reshaping drone production and deployment.
