The following article appeared in the Pacific Daily News:
The Guam Additive Materials and Manufacturing Accelerator, GAMMA, applications center, an initiative of the Applied Science and Technology Research Organization, ASTRO, of America, will reach full operating capacity by February 2027.
This updated timeline comes nearly a year after the warehouse’s groundbreaking ceremony at Dededo’s Pacific Industrial Park on Nov. 6, 2025.
“We are going as fast as we can here to get everything together,” Neal Orringer, ASTRO’s co-founder, president and chairperson for its Board of Directors, shared during his visit to Guam this summer to check in on GAMMA’s progress.
ASTRO America, under a $40 million U.S. Navy mandate, is attempting to transform the country’s defense production capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region by managing the staging and deployment of additive manufacturing capability, or 3D printing, through Guam’s GAMMA initiative.
With the manufacturing capability that GAMMA is hoping to achieve, Guam could see the production of necessary components for submarines, ambulances and fire engines materialize in a couple of weeks, compared to the months or years wait time that it currently takes to import these parts from other parts of the world.
Orringer likened GAMMA to “a whole ecosystem,” which will “first and foremost support the U.S. Navy as its principal stakeholder.”
Once GAMMA’s primary purpose with the Navy is fulfilled, however, Orringer promised that the initiative intends to reach out to other military branches, Guam’s government agencies and local organizations for collaboration.
“We talked to the governor and lieutenant governor yesterday about some of the other industries that struggle with unique parts that are hard to order,” Orringer said. “One example is emergency response vehicles, like ambulances and fire trucks. These vehicles have parts that you can’t get anywhere. Even Guam Power Authority trucks.”
Orringer and Alex Benham, the director and general manager for GAMMA, emphasized that the comparatively quick turnaround for components made in the applications center will be due in large part to the evaluation element they’ve integrated into the entire initiative.
“Evaluation is important − it takes hundreds of pages of data to confirm that parts are made right. Because if a part doesn’t have adequate density, if it can’t withstand impact, then it can be life and death,” Orringer said.
GAMMA will not only include technology for 3D printing production, but also technology for evaluation.
Technology like microscopy, digital inspection tools, robotic welders and computer numerical control milling machines are already installed in the warehouse for use, but, eventually, the warehouse will have more high-grade evaluation technology like an X-ray CT scanner.
Despite all of this technology that ASTRO is bringing to Guam, Orringer stressed that without an adequate workforce, this new industrial sector won’t be sustainable.
“You cannot have a manufacturing industry without well-trained, highly competent people. Our goal is not just to create a program that will only last for a couple of years,” Orringer explained.
To ensure sustainability, ASTRO has teamed up with “one of the best additive manufacturing mechanical engineering programs in the country,” the Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Guam’s new engineering program, he said.
“UOG is an awesome partner, and they currently have a certified civil engineering program, which makes a lot of sense given the construction industry here. But we are going to start, in a complementary fashion, to create a mechanical engineering program here in Guam,” Orringer added.
This proposed long-lasting partnership between ASTRO, Colorado School of Mines, and UOG will take time, according to Orringer. His desire is to push back the start of the program to fall 2027 to get it right.
But even with this delay, Orringer is confident that the desire for this type of education will be present when it’s ready.
“I think there’s a hunger here to get into this industry. I think there’s going to be a demand for the mechanical engineering degrees,” he said. We have a lot of faith that people in Guam are going to be able to do these jobs better than anyone. And that we’re going to be able to make these parts for anyone, whether that’s for the submarine fleet here or elsewhere.”
Although Orringer, Benham and the rest of their team expressed that there have been challenges and delays in getting GAMMA to full operating capacity, they are excited for when that day finally comes.
“This factory in February 2027 is going to be a world-class factory that rivals any major advanced manufacturing factory anywhere in the world,” Orringer said. “And it just happens to be in Guam. You’re going to have one of the best, most advanced manufacturing factories in the world, right here in this warehouse. It’s really important for people to understand that.”