America Makes Opens $35M Funding Call for Additive Manufacturing Projects

$35 Million Up for Grabs

America Makes, the leading additive manufacturing institute, has announced two new project calls totaling $35 million in funding from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech). The funding aims to advance additive manufacturing capabilities within the U.S. defense industrial base.

Modernizing the Defense Industrial Base

The first project—the 2026 Department of Defense (DoD) Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Challenge—will award between $10 million and $15 million to projects covering:

• Digital operations technology
• AI robotic process planning
• In-situ quality checks
• Reducing operational exposure to hazards
• Lowering operational costs
• Pilot lines for emerging military products
• Mobile and large surface automation

John Martin, Additive Manufacturing Research Director at America Makes, stated: "Modernizing the organic industrial base is a readiness imperative. Through this project, we"re hardwiring shopfloor improvements and additive manufacturing into daily production to drive measurable reductions in cost per pound of material, while boosting throughput, quality, and resilience."

Qualifying AM Suppliers

The second project—Joint Additive Qualification for Sustainment Supplier Qualification (JAQS-SQ) Groups 2 and 3—will provide up to 30 awards totaling $10.5 million. This initiative focuses on creating a standardized framework for onboarding, training, audit, and control processes specific to additive manufacturing.

Ben DiMarco, America Makes Technology Transition Director, explained: "The Defense Industrial Base needs more qualified additive manufacturing suppliers — and JAQS is scaling to deliver them. Preparing these suppliers now strengthens the U.S. Defense Industrial Base and builds the advanced manufacturing capacity our warfighters will depend on for decades."

Training for this qualification framework will be implemented by Wichita State University"s National Institute for Aviation Research (WSU-NIAR), focusing on directed energy deposition (DED) and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technologies.

What This Means for the Industry

The focus on in-situ quality assurance, process planning, and software-driven improvements reflects the maturation of additive manufacturing within defense applications. Rather than simply characterizing materials and printing test coupons—the work that dominated AM just a few years ago—the industry is now moving toward production-level capabilities.

As the conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated, additive manufacturing enables rapid, agile responses to battlefield needs—producing mission-critical parts on-demand rather than relying on lengthy supply chains. The U.S. military appears increasingly interested in building similar capabilities domestically.