This integrated U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Additive Manufacturing (AM) Roadmap, released in 2016, provides a foundation and framework for focusing any desired collaboration and coordination of the DoD’s activities in AM to systematically and efficiently mature the technology for multiple DoD applications. Individuals and organizations may utilize this strategic document to identify areas of focus and address roadmap objectives and technology elements together, where appropriate and beneficial.
To create the AM Roadmap, America Makes and Deloitte conducted nine roadmapping workshops, facilitating two workshops with each Service/Agency and one joint workshop that brought stakeholders from all four organizations together.
The workshops aligned to the technical focus areas from the America Makes Technology Roadmap. Each technical focus area is defined as follows:
- Design – Drives technological advancements in new design methods and tools.
- Material – Builds the body of knowledge for benchmark AM property characterization data and eliminates variability in “as-built” material properties.
- Process – Drives technological advancements that enable faster, more accurate, and higher detail resolution AM machines.
- Value Chain – Encourages technological advancements that enable step-change improvements in end-to-end value chain cost and time to market for AM-produced products.
Although technology development and transition requirement identification was the primary focus of the DoD Roadmapping workshops, enabling technology is critical to ensuring a robust AM ecosystem. Over the course of the workshop process, participants from the U.S. Army, Defense Logistics Agency, Department of the Navy, and Air Force identified four key enablers (non-technology factors/needs crucial to the eventual success of DoD AM efforts).
- Cultural Change – Increasing knowledge of and comfort with AM, driving institutional acceptance.
- Workforce Development – Readying the DoD workforce (acquisition, research and development, manufacturing, etc.) with the skills to harness AM.
- Data Management – Developing the policies, architectures, and procedures to properly manage massive, multimodal AM data.
- Policy Change – Modifying organizational governance to realize the benefits of AM.
This integrated DoD AM Roadmap provides a foundation and framework for focusing any desired collaboration and coordination of the DoD’s activities in AM to systematically and efficiently mature the technology for multiple DoD applications. Individuals and organizations may utilize this strategic document to identify areas of focus and address roadmap objectives and technology elements together, where appropriate and beneficial.
A copy of the DOD AM Roadmap, as well as a trifold and short presentation on objectives and impact, can be requested directly from DSIAC or downloaded from the America Makes website (https://www.americamakes.us/dod-amroadmap).
- DOD AM Roadmap, 30 November 2016
- DOD AM Roadmap Trifold, November 2016
- DOD AM Roadmap Objectives and Impact, November 2016
Related Document
In January 2021, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, OUSD(R&E), published the DoD Additive Manufacturing Strategy written by the Joint Defense Manufacturing Council (https://www.cto.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/dod-additive-manufacturing-strategy.pdf).