3D Systems' Saudi Joint Venture NAMI Gets Military Manufacturing License

Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Military Industries granted a Military Manufacturing License to the National Additive Manufacturing and Innovation Company (NAMI), the joint venture between 3D Systems and local partners. The license lets NAMI produce regulated defense hardware inside the Kingdom rather than importing finished parts.

The move fits Saudi Arabia's broader push to build domestic defense manufacturing under Vision 2030. NAMI was already working with Lockheed Martin on qualifying additively manufactured components before this license. Now those programs can move from trials to actual production runs.

For 3D Systems, the license validates the joint venture model it has pursued in the Middle East. The company supplies metal printing systems and process expertise while local partners handle operations and regulatory navigation. That split works better in markets with strict content-of-origin rules for military hardware.

Industry watchers will note that NAMI is not the only additive manufacturing expansion in the region. Several Western OEMs have opened service centers in the Gulf over the past two years, but a full military manufacturing license is a different tier of access. It means NAMI can bid on Saudi Ministry of Defense contracts directly instead of acting as a subcontractor to foreign primes.

The challenge ahead is scale. NAMI still needs certified supply chains for metal powders, post-processing, and non-destructive testing within Saudi Arabia. Those capabilities take time to build, even with a license in hand. But the barrier to entry is now lower than it was last month, and that changes the conversation.