AML3D completes ARCEMY-X system deployment at Newport News Shipbuilding for US Navy submarine production

AML3D has completed commissioning of two custom ARCEMY-X large-format metal additive manufacturing systems at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of HII that builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the US Navy. The $4.5 million initial order is now finalized, triggering a final payment of approximately $892,000. Each ARCEMY-X system uses a positioner rated for 10,886 kilograms and is designed to produce heavy shipbuilding components that have traditionally relied on conventional manufacturing and extended supply chains. A second contract worth $9.9 million for four additional systems has already been awarded, with delivery expected in early 2027 from AML3D's Stow, Ohio facility, bringing the shipyard's total fleet to six systems.

This deployment represents a concrete validation of wire-arc directed energy deposition (DED) for naval shipbuilding, a segment where AM has long been discussed but rarely scaled into production. The US Navy's letter of intent signaling demand for up to 100 AM systems and 3,400 additively manufactured parts by 2030 provides a rare quantified demand signal for the defense vertical. AML3D is leveraging this US traction to expand into European markets, particularly the UK and Australia under the AUKUS trilateral defense partnership, and is exploring a European technology and manufacturing center modeled on its Stow facility. The pattern here is the Chinese localization arc inverted: an Australian company using US defense policy tailwinds to build domestic production capacity and then export that model to allied nations.

For the AM industry, the practical takeaway is that large-format DED has found its clearest production home in defense shipbuilding, where long lead times for castings and forgings create a genuine cost and schedule justification. AML3D must now execute on the 100-system Navy letter of intent while proving that its Stow facility can deliver repeatable, qualified parts at production scale. The European expansion plan is logical but carries execution risk: building a second manufacturing center while scaling US production will test AML3D's operational bandwidth and capital discipline.