Greetings from ASTRO America! 👋🏼
In a special RAPID+TCT preview edition:
- Forward-Deployed Manufacturing for Indo-Pacific Readiness: Inside ASTRO America’s GAMMA Initiative
- Smoke, Mirrors, and Melt Pools: Demystifying PBF-LB In-Situ Process Monitoring Solutions
- Find ASTRO in Boston
Forward-Deployed Manufacturing for Indo-Pacific Readiness: Inside ASTRO America’s GAMMA Initiative 🇬🇺
As operational demands increase across the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. Navy faces persistent challenges in sustainment, supply-chain resilience, and platform readiness at distance. At RAPID + TCT, ASTRO will host a panel on how the GAMMA initiative is addressing those challenges by building a forward-deployed manufacturing hub designed to support naval sustainment and rapid response in contested and remote environments, including Guam.
The conversation will feature ASTRO President and CEO Neal Orringer, Roosevelt Group Principal and former Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo (Guam) Matthew Herrmann, and Justin Rettaliata, PhD, Additive Manufacturing Program Manager for the U.S. Navy Maritime Industrial Base Program. The discussion will be moderated by Debbie Holton, Founder of Converge Consulting LLC.
Panelists will explore what it takes to make forward-deployed manufacturing scalable and credible for defense applications. They will highlight how GAMMA integrates advanced additive manufacturing, materials characterization and metrology, digital qualification, and workforce development into a cohesive ecosystem that can reduce logistics burdens, accelerate maintenance timelines, and enable trusted low-rate production at the point of need. Attendees will also hear where new partners can engage and help shape the next phase of this work.
Watch the Office of the Governor of Guam’s video recap of last year’s benedición of the GAMMA facility here.
Smoke, Mirrors, and Melt Pools: Demystifying PBF-LB In-Situ Process Monitoring Solutions ⚙️
In laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB), real-time detection of process drift and anomalies remains a longstanding “holy grail” for production-grade metal additive manufacturing. Dr. Abdalla R. Nassar will deliver a technical presentation that breaks down how today’s commercial in-situ monitoring systems work, what they measure, and how manufacturers can evaluate these tools in the context of quality assurance and repeatability.
The presentation will share real-world results from an ASTRO/ASTM/InSPIRE sponsored tech challenge comparing solutions from five companies: Addiguru, Additive Assurance, Applied Optimization, JENTEK Sensors, and Phase3D.
Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of key sensor approaches and the current state of the art for flaw detection, including how paired imaging methods can detect flaws down to tens of microns in thin-walled lattice structures relevant to applications like heat exchangers and other thin-walled components.
Watch our video recap of last year’s tech challenge showcase here.
Find ASTRO in Boston 👋🏼
RAPID + TCT is one of the best opportunities of the year to connect with the people building the future of additive manufacturing, and we’re looking forward to seeing partners and peers in Boston. In addition to our GAMMA panel and Dr. Nassar’s technical session, the ASTRO team will be on site throughout the week to meet with collaborators across industry, government, and academia.
If you’ll be at the show, we’d love to connect. Stop by the ASTRO booth, grab a copy of our 2025 Annual Report, and let’s talk about forward-deployed manufacturing, industrial base resilience, production-grade metal AM, and where our programs are headed next.
For logistics and registration for RAPID + TCT, click here. We’ll see you in Boston! ✈️