Only 3D printing can get US Navy’s submarine plan back on track, admiral says

The US Navy must 3D-print more parts if it is to build three submarines per year, a top program manager said.

Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, the Navy’s lead buyer for attack submarines, said additive manufacturing has become essential for meeting construction schedules—and then keeping those new subs operating, according to Defense One.

“Absolutely we need to have additive manufacturing,” Rucker told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing. “If you look across components on the ships—forgings, castings, fittings, valves, fasteners—we cannot meet the demand to be able to support building the submarines we need, as well as supporting sustainment, without going to additive manufacturing.”

The first 3D-printed parts are already starting to be installed, said Rucker, who led the Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine program before taking his current job last year.

“Already this year, we put the first part out of manufacturing on a ballistic missile submarine to ensure they could make their schedule. The second part we had, a critical valve that's needed, that valve was going to be two years late. We've reverse-engineered it; it is being [3D printed] as we speak. They will make it on that submarine by January to support its schedule,” he said.

Rucker is not the first top Navy official to urge greater use of 3D printing for subs. Matt Sermon, executive director of the strategic submarines program executive office, said as much in March. But Rucker’s call comes as the service continues to struggle to obtain parts in a timely manner, and as sub-building shipyards juggle workers and resources in a bid to prevent further production delays. And the Navy isn’t just aiming to prevent delays; it wants to increase production to one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class submarines each year.

To do that, the service is asking lawmakers for more authorities and funding. On Oct. 20, the White House proposed that Congress authorize $3.4 billion in supplemental funding as part of a much larger package that also supports aid for Ukraine and Gaza. About $2 billion would go to boost the submarine industrial base, including about 15 percent for developing technologies such as additive manufacturing and the parts testing and inspection, Rucker said.

The Navy’s additive manufacturing effort is also part of the trilateral agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, or AUKUS.