AMufacture urges faster defense procurement for 3D printing amid UK Defence Investment Plan

UK-based polymer AM service bureau AMufacture has publicly called for procurement reform to accelerate adoption of additive manufacturing in defense, following the government's new Defence Investment Plan. CEO Craig Pyser described the plan as a long-overdue step but warned that without structural changes to acquisition processes, new funding will not translate into resilient production capacity. AMufacture, headquartered in Portsmouth, operates one of the UK's larger fleets of HP Multi Jet Fusion systems and already produces components for drones and autonomous systems across air, land, sea, and underwater platforms. The company argues that additive manufacturing enables rapid iteration and short-run production without hard tooling, a capability the war in Ukraine has demonstrated as critical for modern conflict.

This intervention fits a recurring pattern in defense AM adoption: policy intent outpacing procurement infrastructure. The UK Ministry of Defence's stated "hub-and-spoke" model for decentralized manufacturing logically favors additive processes, which can produce spare parts closer to the point of need rather than shipping them across long supply chains. However, Pyser's critique echoes a broader industry frustration - that defense acquisition systems remain calibrated for traditional, high-volume, long-lead-time manufacturing. AMufacture's position is notable because it comes from a service bureau with existing defense production, not from a hardware vendor selling machines. The company's emphasis on polymer MJF production, rather than metal AM, also highlights a less visible but economically important segment: polymer parts for drones, housings, and non-structural components where speed and design flexibility matter more than metallurgical certification.

Pyser's call for tax relief and employment support to sustain defense-related manufacturing jobs is a practical recognition that policy must address the full value chain, not just procurement targets. For AMufacture, the immediate challenge is converting the Defence Investment Plan into actual purchase orders with shorter decision cycles. The company's existing production capacity and defense references give it a credible starting point, but the bottleneck remains on the customer side - whether the Ministry of Defence can reform its acquisition timelines to match the speed that additive manufacturing promises.