US Army Tests Remote 3D Printed Electronics Repair at Valiant Shield 2026

A Distributed Team Prints Electronics Across the Pacific

The US Army's DEVCOM Armaments Center sent a team to the Valiant Shield exercise in the Indo-Pacific this summer with a specific mission: test remote 3D printed electronics repair on military drones. The exercise ran from June 21 through July 2 across multiple locations. One engineer worked from Schofield Barracks in Oahu. Three others operated from Camp Kinser on Okinawa. A fourth stayed at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey to provide remote support. The distributed setup was intentional. The Army wanted to see if additive manufacturing could function across thousands of miles and different environmental conditions.

The team partnered with Marines from the 3rd Maintenance Battalion and with Sciperio, the research-focused sister company of electronics 3D printing specialist nScrypt. Together they repaired drone components using silver-based conductive inks printed directly onto damaged parts. The process combined 3D scanning, reverse engineering, and additive manufacturing to produce replacements on site rather than waiting for a supply chain.

Salt Air and Tropical Heat Tested the Process

Hawaii's environment posed the biggest technical hurdle. The tropical climate and salt air interfered with the silver inks used in the repair process. Printers also arrived damaged, forcing the team to fix the printers before they could fix the drones. Once operational, the Marines ran test prints of custom flexible antennas. The war-gamers immediately started evaluating how those antennas could replace existing hardware with lighter, cheaper alternatives.

The exercise also highlighted a workforce gap. The Marines had to learn the printing process from scratch under field conditions. The Army representatives noted that training personnel to repair and maintain the printers themselves is just as important as training them to print parts. That kind of cross-functional skill building is often overlooked in commercial additive manufacturing programs.

Next Steps: Automation and Industry Partnerships

The Marines asked DEVCOM to develop an automated diagnosis and printing system for broken electronics. The Armaments Center plans to pursue that through NextFlex, the Manufacturing USA institute focused on hybrid electronics. nScrypt is already a NextFlex member, which should smooth the collaboration.

The drone 3D printing market is growing fast. AM Research estimates it could reach nearly $1 billion by 2034. Performance Drone Works just received an $820 million conditional loan from the DoD's Office of Strategic Capital. The company is already testing 3D printed conformal batteries with Florida-based Material Hybrid Manufacturing. If military adoption of printed drone parts continues at this pace, the commercial market will likely follow the same trajectory.