Dramatic improvements in robotics, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing), and nanoenergetics are dramatically changing the character of conflict in all domains.
In the last few years, additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has gone from an interesting hobby to an industry producing a wide range of products from an ever-growing list of materials: The global explosion of additive manufacturing means it is virtually impossible to provide an up-to-date list of materials that can be printed, but the top-4-most-wanted list for the military industry would include metals, thermoplastics, composites and ceramics.
In addition to a wide range of materials, additive manufacturing has gone from being able to make only a few prototypes to being able to produce parts in large or very large formats. At the same time, additive manufacturing is dramatically increasing the complexity of objects it can produce, while simultaneously improving speed and precision.