Aerialtronics and Department of Defense to focus on Additive Manufacturing

Aerialtronics is a Dutch company producing commercial UAVs. Because of its 3D printing capabilities, their UAVs can be fully customized to meet the needs of individual customers. Some UAVs are used in livestock monitoring, infrastructure inspection, and creative filming.

It was estimated that the company’s research and development costs were diminished by 50% from the use of 3D printing. 3D printing is used to create different-sized sensor equipment, GPS systems, and boxes that accommodate for cables and other electronic components.

Aerialtronics uses Stratasys 3D printing technology to build the UAVs. On a broader scale, streamlining and employing this more cost-effective process permits small companies like Aerialtronics to become a strong contender in the international UAV market.

There is no doubt that 3D printed UAVs will continue to grow into even more useful applications that simplify our lives and meet our everyday needs: Imagine being able to build an UAV on the whim, and customize it to your own specifications, thus making it more affordable and accessible than ever before: This becomes a reality with today’s 3D printing capabilities.

Aside from the benefit of creating custom UAVs, 3D printing offers easy upgradation opportunities: In other words, it is easier to make modifications to a 3D design, then print and test it until the desired variation is achieved. In other ways, now a user can replace broken or malfunctioning parts on an existing UAV with 3D printed ones. So far, several components can be 3D printed including the frame, landing gear, propellers, camera mount, antenna holder, and protective equipment.

Another advantage of 3D printing results from building UAV parts in new lightweight materials. An UAV will perform better and fly longer when it is lighter. It also has better battery life and responsiveness to commands in-flight when it is lighter and weight is evenly distributed. The versatility of materials used for 3D printing translates into higher performance features in the UAVs.

Military branches are also focusing on 3D Printing to explore new ways to make cheaper, lighter, and more effective UAVs. A Marine Corp named Rhet McNeal created Scout, an UAV composed of 3D printed components. This UAV only costs $600 to build in comparison to a traditional one that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since it is 3D printed, should the UAV receive any damage, the parts can be easily printed and replaced within hours. On the other hand, a standard-issue UAV would require weeks, sometimes months, to get a replacement through the Marine Corps’ supply line. Scout is now in the hands of Mitre Corp., a USMC UAV supplier, to undergo certification testing.

¿More examples? The University of Virginia created a 3D printed UAV for the Department of Defense that can be printed in less than a day at $2,500, including electronics development. The body of the drone only costs $800. It is known as the Razor since it appears like one long wing. Weighing in at 6 pounds with all the equipment, the Razor can fly at 40 mph for up to 45 minutes.

The features and capabilities of the Razor are not compromised by the fact that it is 3D printed: after all, it has all the same functions as a traditional UAV with GPS waypoints for navigation, mile-distance control, camera hoisting, and phone linking capabilities that extend the distance it can be controlled within. The greatest advantage of this being 3D printed is that it can be modified and reprinted on the whim.

Last but not least: Soleon is an Italian UAV company advancing its efforts in 3D printing UAVs. Because it deals with diverse projects, including aerial photography and thermal mapping, designs ought to be flexible and quick for upgrades. Soleon uses Materialise to meet customer needs, shorten lead times, and reduce UAV weight. One of their 3D printed UAVs is called SoleonAgro, which is intended for agricultural pest control.

EXMAN: Additive Manufacturing for Real Warfare Scenarios

In early 2016, the Office of Strategy and Innovation (S&I) was approached by 1st Marine Logistics Group, 1st Maintenance Battalion’s Marine Corps Expeditionary Manufacturing (EXMAN) for seed funding to design, build, and test an Advanced Manufacturing facility that would perform under actual operational conditions, and would be tested during the Marine Corps’ annual Exercise Steel Knight (SK-17).

The Marine Corps’ objective was to make it mobile so that during an operation, whenever key parts break down, replacement parts could be fabricated on the spot, thereby eliminating well-known supply line hurdles. The result nowadays  is a deployable 3D Printing studio in a mobile containerized shelter which can be used anywhere in the world, supporting the immediate needs of the Marines on the ground during operations or combat. 

Marines take 3D printed UAVs from the lab to the field

Additive manufacturing is a technology the U.S. military has been pursuing for some time: “Imagine being in a forward deployed environment, and just like Amazon, you can ‘order’ the weapons and equipment you need for the next day’s mission from an entire catalog of possible solutions,” says Capt. Chris J. Wood, who oversees innovation efforts at the Marine Corps’ installations and logistics branch. “These solutions can all be upgraded literally overnight, in order to integrate new components or adapt to new requirements.”

In the coming weeks the service will deploy a tiny unmanned aircraft dubbed the “Nibbler,” which would become the first 3D printed drone used in combat operations by conventional forces. Marines see it as just the beginning of a new way of equipping and supplying forces in the field. The Nibbler will be used for surveillance missions, along with several other 3D printed unmanned aircraft that the Marines are still developing, Wood added. “We can have a backpack-able fixed wing UAS for long endurance ISR. We can have a small quadcopter for building clearing operations,” he said. “We will forward deploy these capabilities into a combat zone as soon as possible.”

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SSC Pacific Expedites Ship-to-Shore Capabilities for the Marine Corps

For the past 14 years the United States Marine Corps has been engulfed in land-locked engagements in the Middle East.

The message from the highest levels of Marine Corps leadership is it's time to get back to the Corps' maritime roots with the assistance of industry, academia, and Naval Research and Development Establishment partners, including the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific).

The Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation (S2ME2) Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) 2017, a first-of-its-kind opportunity for Marine Corps operators to test rapidly prototyped technologies meant to provide dominance in littoral zones, took place at Camp Pendleton from April 17-28.

"Why are we doing this? Because we want to get better, and the world has changed-our adversaries are gaining capability and we don't want a fair fight so we're always looking for an edge," said Gen. Robert Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps. "Right now we're just looking for ways to take advantage of technology, manufacturing, the things that are out there -artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing- to try to create capabilities that are going to make us as individual Marines and our organizational units better."

More than 50 different technologies were tested or on display at the exercise, which culminated with a demonstration of what a future amphibious assault of the beach may look like-unmanned air, land and maritime vehicles surveyed the area before Marines ever stepped foot on the beach; advanced antenna systems provided more secure and robust communications links; Marines harvested kinetic energy from their own footsteps to power their devices providing near real time situational awareness data; and additive manufacturing allowed the troops to be more self-sufficient: "With industry moving out very fast, how do we leverage what industry's doing across the commercial world?" asked Lt. General Robert Walsh, commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant, Combat Development and Integration. "Bringing in operators, laboratory capability developers, technologists, our warfare center engineers who are the key to all this, along with the industry piece of it, into a sandbox and letting everybody play in the sandbox and help us figure out where we're going to go."

SSC Pacific brought 12 of these rapidly developed technologies to S2ME2 ANTX 2017 to get feedback from Marine Corps operators and potentially fast track the capabilities to the fleet, including advanced antennas and communications systems, additive manufacturing on-the-move, networking capability for unmanned air and maritime vehicles, and positioning systems for a GPS-denied environment. "Our role is to accelerate the fielding of critical capability to our Marines and Sailors," said Dr. John Burrow, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation. "That's what we do-it's all about speed."

Randall Olsen, an SSC Pacific scientist whose Directional Ad hoc Networking Technology (DANTE) antenna was demonstrated at S2ME2, said while speed to capability is key, he and his cohorts have their eye on the long term. "DANTE is an antenna, and sort of a breakthrough both in cost and in weight: it's 10- to 100-times lighter and 10- to 100-times less expensive than existing technology for this antenna," Olsen explained. "We're with this for the long haul to see it transition through, so we're working with all sorts of organizations to make sure it happens. As a civilian contributor to support the warfighter, that's what we're here for- to make their life better."

Carly Jackson, SSC Pacific's director of prototyping for information warfare and one of the main organizers of the event, explained the key differentiating element of the exercise was to demonstrate new technology developed in rapid response to real world problems facing the fleet. "This is a relatively new construct where we use the Navy's organic labs and warfare centers to bring together emerging technologies and innovation to solve a very specific fleet force fighting problem. It's focused on first wave and mainly focused on unmanned systems with a big emphasis on intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance," she said.  "We've seen tremendous development and integration happening here... not only among our government teams and across the various system commands, but also with our industry partners and industry-to-industry collaborations as well."

US Navy develops GBAD to Shoot Down Enemy UAVs

A laser weapon capable of shooting down drones which can be mounted on military vehicles such as Humvees, is to be created by the US Navy.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) said it had awarded contracts for the design of a lightweight laser missile aimed at protecting troops from drone attacks, dubbed Ground-Based Air Defence Directed Energy On-the-Move programme, otherwise known as GBAD.

Colonel William Zamagni said the GBAD is necessary to combat enemies' increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in conflicts. "We can expect that our adversaries will increasingly use UAVs and our expeditionary forces must deal with that rising threat. GBAD gives the Marine Corps a capability to counter the UAV threat efficiently, sustainably and organically with austere expeditionary forces. GBAD employed in a counter UAV role is just the beginning of its use and opens myriad other possibilities for future expeditionary forces."