America Makes MMX 2026: The Navy Says Additive Manufacturing Is Still Too Slow

The opening keynote at this week's MMX 2026 in Youngstown, Ohio made the theme clear within minutes: the additive manufacturing industry needs to move faster. Matthew Sermon, Executive Director of DRPM Submarines at the Department of the Navy, told the America Makes audience that while the sector's progress has been genuine, "it's nothing like the speed that our adversaries move at. We have to move faster."

America Makes Is Growing Fast

Executive Director John Wilczynski used his State of the Union to lay out where the institute stands. America Makes has added roughly 80 new members in the past year, spread across 11 academic institutions, four nonprofits, 13 large businesses, and close to 60 small businesses. The project portfolio has doubled to 194 active programs, and $112.6 million in Project Call funding has reached members over the last 12 months.

Technology Director Brandon Ribic flagged the practical bottlenecks. "We all get to a point where we can test into oblivion," he said. "But we're being encouraged to get to that place faster. The keys that we see to getting there are materials data, protocols and practices, specs and standards, and training." The institute plans to roll out six new Project Calls soon.

JAQS-SQ Aims to Fix the Qualification Mess

One of the more concrete announcements at MMX was the Joint Additive Qualification for Sustainment - Supplier Qualification (JAQS-SQ) program. Right now, many defense contract manufacturers have one printer qualified for one spec and another qualified for a different standard. JAQS-SQ is a training, implementation, and auditing framework designed to standardize that mess.

Rachel Levine, founder of ACE 3D, called it "the most holistic I've seen." Mark Shaw from the National Institute for Aviation Research explained that the program uses accreditation rather than replacing NADCAP or ASTM standards. The goal is a single review point: if a supplier becomes JAQS-accredited, the government does not need to audit every document individually.

From Prototype to Production: What Transition Actually Means

Ben DiMarco, Technology Transition Director at America Makes, pushed back against the idea that transition is about proving a part can be printed. "Transition is not, 'can I print it?' It's engines, systems, rockets. Capability is iterative." He cited the iPhone as an example of a product that required decades of DARPA, DoE, and NSF investment before it became familiar.

DiMarco said the institute is working on a formal transition strategy that measures success by connecting projects to deliverables, and wants deeper engagement with program offices, depots, shipyards, and industry partners.

The Military Users Are Already Here

MMX also featured direct testimony from people who are already using additive manufacturing in operational settings. Travis Mayberry from Divergent and Steve Fournier from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems described a partnership born from the America Makes community. Fournier was blunt: "Nobody cares about additive until it serves a purpose. Let's just burst that bubble right now."

CWO3 Matt Pine, Innovation Officer at the II Marine Expeditionary Force Innovation Campus, described drone manufacturing as "very convoluted" but argued the military should make drones on demand rather than wait for supply chains. "What does additive do for us? The same thing it does for parts - gives us adaptability and speed. We're not waiting on some supply chain bottleneck." Pine added that the U.S. needs to learn from Ukraine's approach to drone sourcing to stay competitive with China.

What Actually Slows Things Down

Theodore Gronda from NAVAIR's Sustainment Group put hard numbers on the demand signal. The Navy Supply Systems Command handles roughly 9,000 part requests per year for components that have lost their supply sources. Fleet Readiness Centers average 3,700 Material Readiness Degraders annually - physical, environmental, and procedural failures that take equipment out of service.

The bottleneck is not printing capability. It is the acquisition system built for a 1960s paradigm, trying to compete in a digital era. The message from MMX 2026 is that the technology is ready. The bureaucracy underneath it is not.