Navy Fast-Tracks 3D-Printed Parts to Keep Submarine Production on Schedule

From Part-by-Part Reviews to Material-Process Approval

The U.S. Navy has a submarine production problem. It wants to build one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class boats every year, and the supply chain is not keeping up. On August 11 the service approved a new set of technical requirements, PPD 802-8436658, that treats approved metal 3D printing processes as interchangeable with legacy cast and wrought parts.

Until now, swapping a conventional component for an additively manufactured one meant slow, part-by-part engineering reviews, manual drawing changes, and repeated first-article testing. The new rules strip that away. Engineers still have to prove the material and process, but once those are qualified they can substitute approved AM parts without starting the paperwork from scratch each time.

Vice Admiral Robert Gaucher, director of Navy Submarine Programs, put it plainly: the Navy is moving past approving single parts and toward approving material-process combinations. If the part is made with the right process and material, the Navy can accept it. That is a very different mindset from the machine-by-machine approvals that have slowed military AM adoption for years.

The directive covers submarine design, construction, overhaul, and repair. For high-consequence systems, including Level I material control and SUBSAFE components, existing Navy quality rules still apply, plus extra tracking and non-destructive inspection. The change is not about lowering standards; it is about removing redundant bureaucracy.

It is also tied to a wider push. The Maritime Industrial Base Program has already funded 169 supplier projects worth $648 million, and additively manufactured submarine parts were bought through the Defense Logistics Agency supply system for the first time in 2025. Additive parts are also already operating on USS Washington and USS Nevada. The new requirements build on those wins and try to make them routine.

For an industry that has spent years asking when 3D printing would move from prototype to production, the Navy's message is clear: it wants AM parts at the speed of fleet demand, not at the speed of a filing cabinet.