Air Force Awards 3D Systems $7.65M Contract to Continue Work on Large Format Metal 3D Printer

Back in September 2023, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded 3D Systems a contract worth nearly $11 million to develop a large-format metal additive manufacturing (AM) demonstrator, a project meant to support the development of hypersonic applications. Now, 3D Systems has announced that the company received a contract worth $7.65 million to begin work on the second phase of the project, which is expected to be completed two years from now.

Presumably at least partially in response to the news, 3D Systems’ share price jumped as much as 25% in intraday trading on Wednesday, August 27. On the same day, Velo3D shares gained as much as 19%, in a week where the company announced another new Department of Defense (DoD) contract.

The Trump administration has made increased investment in the development of hypersonic tech a key priority, starting with an executive order in January that called for the creation of an “Iron Dome for America” — the “Golden Dome”. The administration has stated that the missile defense shield could be completed in three years, a claim that experts have met with skepticism.

In any case, the Pentagon has demonstrated a strong interest in hypersonic R&D long before the Trump administration, and the interest extends far beyond the Golden Dome. At the end of 2024, the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy collaborated on a second successful test flight of a conventional hypersonic missile, launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, in collaboration with the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs, completed a conventional hypersonic missile test from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, in December 2024. Image courtesy of DoD

In a press release about 3D Systems’ $7.65 million Air Force contract for the second phase of a large-format metal 3D printer, the company’s VP of Aerospace and Defense, Dr. Michael Shepard, said, “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made thus far in our collaboration with the U.S. Air Force. We’ve successfully demonstrated a number of innovative technologies under this program and it’s exciting to see those technologies mature both for this large-scale system as well as our commercially available printers.”

Although it’s only one day of trading, it is noteworthy to see significant jumps in the share prices of two AM OEMs with such robust hypersonic programs. This is something to pay attention to over the longer term: if DoD truly is, as it appears to be, the principal demand driver for the U.S. AM industry, that ultimately needs to be reflected in share prices and, even more importantly, earnings reports.

So far, it has been somewhat difficult to quantify the DoD’s true business impact on AM, beyond the announcement of individual contracts. On the other hand, the Pentagon has slowly but steadily been making more of an effort to be transparent about its demand for advanced manufacturing technologies, and especially AM, a theme that was fully on display at America Makes’ Member Meeting and Exchange (MMX) in early August.

If the gains that companies like 3D Systems have seen as a result of DoD contracts are the beginning of a sustained trend as opposed to just a blip, it would go a long way towards reviving the financial world’s interest in AM. In past AM industry hype cycles, the idea that AM could scale to the point of being a genuine production-level technology was always a mere hypothetical. A DoD-related growth narrative, however, would ground the hype in a reality with an extensive, proven track record.

Featured image from 3DSystems.com