When we last checked in on the broad defense tech landscape and the role of the additive manufacturing (AM) industry in that environment, it became clear that the connecting thread amongst the latest developments in 3D printed weapons systems is self-disruption. Whether one looks at the government budgets that are largely responsible for funding military technology, or the private enterprises competing for said funding, the central process taking place is a story of status quo leaders trying to adapt before they die.
Autonomous weapons systems — military drones — aren’t the explanation for why this change is happening, but they are probably the most immediate single catalyst enabling the change. At 3DPrint.com and AM Research, we’re taking great efforts to make sure we stay on top of this constantly unfolding story, with a primary example of that being the UAS Additive Strategies: The Present and Future of Drone Manufacturing webinar taking place on June 30 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern, which you should register for now if you haven’t already done so.
Drones for All Occasions
One thing to point out about the webinar is that, given the need to balance time constraints with the objective of delivering the most valuable available information, the content will focus, more or less exclusively, on aerial drones. This is the first time we’ve done this webinar, so who knows if it’s just a one-off or the beginning of a regularly occurring event, but I would guarantee that, in any possible future versions of UAS Strategies, the ‘A’ will stand for ‘Autonomous’ rather than ‘Aerial’.
That is, drones on land and at sea are already on their way to becoming just as significant as the drones we’re all most familiar with, the ones that fly. Indeed, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) recently asked for proposals (due midnight June 13) from companies capable of supplying uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) (drone boats) for the Indo-Pacific region. This is a perfectly logical result of the fact that Iran is relying in no small part on USVs in its gambit to control the Strait of Hormuz, although it’s worth pointing out that the DIU has been periodically asking for such proposals for years.
There isn’t one single factor that’s pushing militaries more and more in the direction of drones: it is, perhaps, precisely that they simultaneously solve many different challenges involved in the logistics of contemporary combat, which accounts for the widespread shift towards autonomous systems. Ukraine, for instance, has shown that a nation can hold its own against a much larger, much more populous adversary by offsetting manpower disadvantages with drones. In a nation like the US, that same dynamic suggests that drones make far more sense than conventional weapons when facing a future where recruitment numbers will likely never be what they once were.
From a production standpoint,
When we last checked in on the broad defense tech landscape and the role of the additive manufacturing (AM) industry in that environment, it became clear that the connecting thread amongst the latest developments in 3D printed weapons systems is self-disruption. Whether one looks at the government budgets that are largely responsible for funding military technology, or the private enterprises competing for said funding, the central process taking place is a story of status quo leaders trying to adapt before they die.
Autonomous weapons systems — military drones — aren’t the explanation for why this change is happening, but they are probably the most immediate single catalyst enabling the change. At 3DPrint.com and AM Research, we’re taking great efforts to make sure we stay on top of this constantly unfolding story, with a primary example of that being the UAS Additive Strategies: The Present and Future of Drone Manufacturing webinar taking place on June 30 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern, which you should register for now if you haven’t already done so.
Drones for All Occasions
One thing to point out about the webinar is that, given the need to balance time constraints with the objective of delivering the most valuable available information, the content will focus, more or less exclusively, on aerial drones. This is the first time we’ve done this webinar, so who knows if it’s just a one-off or the beginning of a regularly occurring event, but I would guarantee that, in any possible future versions of UAS Strategies, the ‘A’ will stand for ‘Autonomous’ rather than ‘Aerial’.
That is, drones on land and at sea are already on their way to becoming just as significant as the drones we’re all most familiar with, the ones that fly. Indeed, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) recently asked for proposals (due midnight June 13) from companies capable of supplying uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) (drone boats) for the Indo-Pacific region. This is a perfectly logical result of the fact that Iran is relying in no small part on USVs in its gambit to control the Strait of Hormuz, although it’s worth pointing out that the DIU has been periodically asking for such proposals for years.
There isn’t one single factor that’s pushing militaries more and more in the direction of drones: it is, perhaps, precisely that they simultaneously solve many different challenges involved in the logistics of contemporary combat, which accounts for the widespread shift towards autonomous systems. Ukraine, for instance, has shown that a nation can hold its own against a much larger, much more populous adversary by offsetting manpower disadvantages with drones. In a nation like the US, that same dynamic suggests that drones make far more sense than conventional weapons when facing a future where recruitment numbers will likely never be what they once were.
From a production standpoint,