Snowbird Prints Metal Parts at Sea During RIMPAC 2026

What They Did

Snowbird Technologies deployed its SAMM Tech system aboard the USS Essex during Rim of the Pacific Exercise 2026. The setup additively manufactured a 316L stainless steel component while the ship was underway from San Diego to Hawaii. That means the part was printed, machined, and finished at sea, not in a shore-based factory.

The system uses a Meltio Engine Blue laser-wire directed energy deposition head. Instead of metal powder, it feeds wire feedstock, which is safer and easier to manage in a shipboard environment. After printing, an integrated CNC machining unit brought the part to final tolerances without leaving the platform.

Why It Matters

Naval logistics across the Pacific still depend on long supply chains. A replacement part for an aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship can take weeks to arrive from a continental depot. If a vessel can produce critical components on board, that timeline shrinks to hours.

The demonstration was part of the Naval Postgraduate School's Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) distributed manufacturing experiment. Snowbird's system joined more than 50 advanced manufacturing technologies evaluated during RIMPAC 2026.

The Conditions

SPEE3D CEO Byron Kennedy noted the system operated on an open deck in heavy seas. That is a stress test most factory-based metal printers never face. The ability to maintain print quality while the platform pitches and rolls matters if the technology is ever going to be used operationally.

During the exercise, the SAMM Tech system produced 32 mission-critical metal parts. Twenty-four were manufactured through reachback at the Knoxville Armory in Tennessee, while eight were produced at sea aboard the Canadian support vessel MV Asterix. Twenty-nine of those parts completed the full workflow, including heat treatment and machining.

What Comes Next

After the transit to Hawaii, the system will be offloaded at Pearl Harbor and moved to Schofield Barracks. It will remain active through the end of the exercise, supporting additional distributed manufacturing tasks. The Navy has been slowly expanding its at-sea manufacturing footprint, and RIMPAC results often shape future procurement decisions.

For now, the message is simple: metal 3D printing at sea is no longer just a concept. It produced real parts under real conditions, and those parts met mission requirements.