ADDiTEC Demonstrates Material Freedom and Mission Readiness at JIFX 2026 with HYBRiD-X

At the Naval Postgraduate School‘s Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) in May, ADDiTEC demonstrated how advanced manufacturing can support the future of defense sustainment through its HYBRiD-X expeditionary manufacturing platform. JIFX is a quarterly collaborative event where innovators can safely test prototypes at Camp Roberts alongside military warfighters and government stakeholders, and offers a free opportunity to de-risk new technology ahead of major events such as RIMPAC.

As part of a distributed manufacturing experiment supported by CAMRE and FLEETWERX, HYBRiD-X successfully processed multiple engineering alloys—including aluminum, stainless steel, and nickel-aluminum bronze—within a single deployable system. The demonstration highlighted a key advantage of the platform: Material Freedom. Rather than being limited to a single manufacturing process or material family, HYBRiD-X enables users to manufacture and repair a broad range of metal components using the material best suited for the mission.

HYBRiD-X combines Liquid Metal Jetting (LMJ), Laser Directed Energy Deposition (LDED), and CNC machining within a compact containerized platform. This unique combination allows operators to produce, repair, and finish metal components using a single system while significantly reducing equipment footprint.

The demonstration also showcased how Material Freedom directly contributes to Mission Readiness. In maritime and expeditionary environments, where space is limited and operational requirements can change rapidly, the ability to manufacture and repair components from multiple materials using a single deployable platform provides a significant logistical advantage. Instead of relying on multiple manufacturing systems or extended supply chains, operators can produce mission-critical components closer to the point of need.

“For the expeditionary environments we are operating in, we need to manufacture flexibly. Since we do not know what part will be requested, we must account for this by providing systems that are multi-material compatible as well as multi-process capable, such as CNC additive and subtractive technologies,” said Chris Curran, CAMRE Program Manager.

As the U.S. Department of Defense continues to advance distributed manufacturing initiatives through organizations such as FLEETWERX, the Naval Postgraduate School, and CAMRE, technologies that deliver both material flexibility and mission-ready manufacturing capabilities are expected to play an increasingly important role in supporting the warfighter.

For ADDiTEC, the JIFX demonstration represents another step toward the future of expeditionary manufacturing—bringing production, repair, and sustainment capabilities closer to where they are needed most. The HYBRiD-X platform is believed to be the world’s first deployable manufacturing system to combine Liquid Metal Jetting, Laser Directed Energy Deposition, and CNC machining within a single containerized solution.