Advancing Defence with Additive Manufacturing Technology at UK MOD Event

On March 5, 2025, the Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) hosted the latest UK MOD Strategic Command Additive Manufacturing innovation event. The collaborative event took place at DMC’s production facility, located in Silverstone Park, with the support of the Buckinghamshire Enterprise Zone.

Project TAMPA is a UK Strategic Command Defence Support sponsored project that is exploring the advantages of integrating the very latest AM (3D-printing) technology “from factory to foxhole”. DMC has been actively involved with Project TAMPA from its inception, collaborating with the MOD and defence companies such as NP Aerospace, Babcock, Thales, and RBSL to develop and integrate this advanced manufacturing capability into the defence supply chain.

Fully aligned with the MOD’s Land Industrial Strategy (LIS) and the Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), TAMPA is a leading initiative focused on accelerating collaboration with industry to identify and integrate the latest manufacturing technologies.

TAMPA Spiral 1 successfully demonstrated that AM can produce non-safety critical NATO Stock Number (NSN) parts with the required quality standards. Spiral 2 is now expanding this capability to include safety-critical parts, further assessing how AM can enhance the production process.

DMC is also partnering with NP Aerospace to explore additional AM benefits. Using Direct Energy Deposition (DED), they aim to create large metal structural parts while reducing lead times, tooling dependency, and costs. AM offers several advantages in the defence supply chain, including weight reduction, cost savings, faster production, greater agility, improved design innovation, better inventory and obsolescence management, and potentially even forward-deployed manufacturing support.

Major General Phil Prosser, Director Joint Support, commented, “As the MOD’s Advanced Manufacturing Champion, it is hugely rewarding to witness what we have achieved by exploring and harnessing the benefits that additive manufacturing can bring.

“Project TAMPA is a prime example of how the MOD can work in partnership with both major defence contractors and smaller innovative British companies like the DMC, to push the boundaries of innovation and technology to maximize defence capability. Collaborating with defence primes and high-technology SME’s in this way is critical to protecting and developing the UK defence supply chain.”

Kieron Salter, CEO at DMC, also said, “We are very proud to have hosted such an important MOD event at our facility in Silverstone Park. DMC has an advanced engineering pedigree born from the most demanding of sectors such as Formula 1, hyper-cars, aerospace and space. At DMC, we pride ourselves in adopting a holistic approach to additive manufacturing; applying creativity and innovation to our engineering that leads to an optimized final production solution – we don’t just 3D-print to drawing.

“From hyper-cars to armored vehicles, we apply the same pioneering solutions to ensure the customer secures the maximum benefit from the AM process and it has been a real pleasure to be working on Project TAMPA. I know that we have only just scratched the surface of what is possible through working together with the MOD and the defence supply chain like this, to achieve greater benefits – lots more to come.”