{"id":2676,"date":"2017-07-13T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=2676"},"modified":"2018-05-22T16:37:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T16:37:18","slug":"us-marines-3d-printing140720174","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/us-marines-3d-printing140720174\/","title":{"rendered":"US Marine Corps bring 3D printing to the front lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

3D printing has come to combat zones and the United States Marine Corps is welcoming it with open arms into their bases. The branch of the United States military has been one of the leading voices behind the incorporation of 3D printing in the military, recognizing early on its benefits and the many possibilities it can offer to make fighting smarter and bring the advantages they need while risking their lives out on the field.<\/p>\n

This latest endeavor by the Marines comes on the curtails of other announcements made by players in the defense industry this year, such as defense giant Lockheed Martin\u2019s announcement<\/a> of their ICBM design or APWorks and Dassault Syst\u00e8mes partnership announcement<\/a> last month to bring additive manufacturing further into the defense and aerospace industry – Helping to illustrate just how big a role additive manufacturing will play in the future.<\/p>\n

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Gen. Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps (right), observes a 3D printer in the Central Command area of operations photo\/\/ Marine Corps – Cpl. Samantha K. Braun<\/p><\/div>\n

By bringing 3D printers to the front lines for soldiers, they have gained a great benefit. As most of the areas the soldiers are in are highly active, these machines are enabling soldiers to repair their parts, gear and creating an overall faster supply chain so that they can continue their fight without having to wait for replacements to arrive. Thanks to the addition of these machines, they are also able to highlight the benefits of this technology both in the military and outside.<\/p>

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\u201cThere are radios out there that have plastic components. We\u2019ve been able to print plastic components for those radios, to make them operable when they were inoperable,\u201d explained Dana, Lt. Gen. Michael Dana, Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics in a recent interview.\u201cThis way it has much promise to provide on-demand parts literally within hours, worst case days, whereas if you\u2019re dealing with a traditional, back in the States to point of need, you\u2019re talking multiple days, weeks and sometimes even longer. So that\u2019s the attraction of this capability\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lance Cpl. Vincent A. Smyth, Marine Air-Ground Task Force planning specialist calibrates a 3D printer during the 3-D Printing Training Course at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Photo \/\/ marines.mil<\/p><\/div>\n

During an interview in June with Marine Lt. Col. Howard Marotto, the service\u2019s lead for additive manufacturing and 3D printing development and implementation, he explained that the Marines are the first service to actually send 3D printers into combat zones with conventional forces. Previously, the 3D printers were sent with engineers. Today, thanks to training provided to the Marines, they are now able to be deployed on their own with the 3D printers.<\/p>\n

While the Marine\u2019s haven\u2019t given specifics on where the printers are located, they have confirmed that they are currently in combat zones that belong to the Marine Corps Crisis Response Task Force in the Middle East, with others said to be in the same region, but behind front lines.<\/p>\n

What do you think of the Marines using 3D printing? What do you think this could mean for the future of additive manufacturing? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0pages. Don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly\u00a0Newsletter<\/a>, with all the latest news in 3D printing delivered straight to your inbox!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3D printing has come to combat zones and the United States Marine Corps is welcoming it with open arms into their bases. The branch of the United States military has been one of the leading voices behind the incorporation of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6051,"featured_media":2682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8227,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions\/8227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}