The National Interest: Guam 3D Printing Facility to Enhance Navy Maintenance Capabilities

A planned 3D printing facility on the island of Guam could ease some of the US Navy’s mounting maintenance and repair concerns, while helping to streamline Indo-Pacific logistics. The Guam Additive Materials and Manufacturing Accelerator (GAMMA) will use additive manufacturing technology, such as 3D printing, to fabricate needed parts for vessels awaiting repair or maintenance.

GAMMA director Alex Benham said the facility will give the Navy the ability to “deploy parts or components as needed, where needed.” GAMMA will be able to make anything from large metal components to small plastic radio dials, all in the same facility. The enterprise will be managed by Maryland-based nonprofit Applied Science and Technology Research Organization of America (ASTRO America).

The Navy awarded ASTRO America a $5 million initial contract in 2024, with an anticipated $12 million more on the way. Those monies will be supplemented by funding from the nonprofit BlueForge Alliance and the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base Program Office.

Guam’s location in the vital Indo-Pacific theater makes it a key operational and logistics base, especially for submarines. High-intensity operational schedules, even in peacetime, elevate maintenance and repair requirements that the Navy is currently ill-equipped to handle efficiently. Maintenance backlogs delay much-needed repairs for months or years, even for minor jobs.

Benham noted that castings for a broken submarine valve, a relatively routine repair, can take six months to two years to produce, much less ship and install. The GAMMA facility will reduce that time to two weeks by producing the item in-house.

Operational availability will be crucial as Indo-Pacific tensions rise. Losing a ship or submarine for months because of repair delays could be catastrophic in a shooting war. The GAMMA facility could well become a strategic-level asset in some scenarios.

The Navy’s two submarine tenders perform most of the Western Pacific’s needed submarine maintenance. Sub tenders are dedicated support ships tailored to the needs of submarines. The GAMMA facility will be able to provide parts and tools for those ships, reducing repair and maintenance times and drastically lowering costs.

Part of a Growing Trend

The Pentagon, via the Defense Logistics Agency Maritime Mechanicsburg Detachment, recently awarded $5 billion to six firms to upgrade their shipbuilding capabilities, including the use of 3D printing as part of the manufacturing process. 3D printing is so far limited to “low-risk” parts, which are not considered vital to the ship’s safety and function, but have reduced manufacturing times by up to 80 percent on some items.

The GAMMA facility looks to expand that capability as part of the Navy’s force projection mission at a forward base. As noted, faster turnaround times will be vital in the Indo-Pacific, especially in an actively hostile scenario.

Expanding the Defense Industrial Base

The ASTRO American Guam facility will also seek to develop a local talent pipeline for the defense industry by working with local universities, government, and private enterprise. A mechanical engineering degree is currently unavailable locally, which ASTRO America seeks to change in support of expanded manufacturing capabilities on the island.

GAMMA is still in the early stages of a phased implementation process. Its completion and expansion, however, will provide much-needed dispersed maintenance, repair, and manufacturing capability to the Navy and the American defense industry.

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