American defense startup Firestorm Labs proposes printing drones directly on ships using 3D printers for this, and demonstrated such capability in practice aboard Wasp-class USS Essex (LHD-2) amphibious ship when it headed to RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercises held earlier this year in Hawaii.
As Defense News publication reports, xCell container microfactory was placed on ship, thanks to which over 1,000 parts including 12 Squall FPV drones were printed on ship during its stay in open waters. Work continued at peak waves of approximately 3.6 m (12 feet) height.
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Moreover, drones were not simply manufactured on ship, subsequently they were used at RIMPAC exercises as adversary team FPV drones within counter-drone exercises. What feedback on these drones was is not reported.
Firestorm Labs emphasizes not only that printing components on ship facilitates logistics but also enables conducting repairs in mere hours instead of days or weeks, when military had to wait for stock replenishment.
Squall FPV drones printed on amphibious ship are also Firestorm Labs product, developed in cooperation with ORQA. This is classic FPV drone with flight range of approximately 32 km (20 miles), payload approximately 2.5 kg (5.5 pounds), flight duration of 42 minutes and speed approximately 128 km/h (80 mph).
Overall 3D printing today is actively used in defense production, including in Ukraine, where it went path from manufacturing tail sections to full support of FPV units, and overall is used in various directions.
And this not even mentioning U.S., where they overall want to use it for genuinely wide list of tasks — from printing fuel for Javelin ATGMs and Stinger MANPADS to printing components for copy of Ukrainian Magura naval drone, to increase production rates of these products.
At same time, regarding drone printing, previously in U.S., developing this direction, they encountered significant obstacle in form of bureaucracy, which, however, is such that can quite be solved.
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