AnyShape and Materialise join Eurodrone production chain as industrial partners for Airbus Defence and Space

Belgian metal additive manufacturing company AnyShape has been selected by Airbus Defence and Space as an industrial partner for the Eurodrone program, moving beyond prototype and demonstration phases into sustained, multi-year production volumes under aerospace-grade quality controls. AnyShape is joined by fellow Belgian firm Materialise, which will produce the Environmental Control System through its industrial AM service division. Eurodrone is a remotely piloted aircraft system developed under a four-nation framework (Germany, France, Italy, Spain), managed by OCCAR, and designed from the ground up for integration into non-segregated civil airspace with NATO STANAG 4671 Ed. 3 certification. The platform carries a maximum mission payload of 2.3 metric tons with up to 40 hours endurance, and is architected to exclude ITAR-controlled components, preserving full operational sovereignty for deploying nations.

This selection marks a significant step in the aerospace qualification grind, where additive manufacturing moves from isolated component development to embedded, certified production infrastructure within a major defense program. Airbus has progressively built this pattern: Stratasys now produces over 25,000 flight-ready 3D printed components annually for Airbus across multiple aircraft programs, while Italian metal AM supplier Aidro was previously qualified to supply flight-ready parts for Leonardo helicopters. The Eurodrone commitment signals that metal AM suppliers like AnyShape are now being integrated into multi-partner European defense production chains under the same rigorous certification frameworks that have historically limited AM to prototyping. The qualification infrastructure supporting these commitments is also maturing, with programs like the UK's £38 million DECSAM initiative and ASTM International's expanded AM accreditations across Europe providing the governance backbone for such production-scale adoption.

For AnyShape and Materialise, the practical challenge now is execution: scaling production to meet Eurodrone's multi-year delivery schedule while maintaining the traceability and certification protocols that aerospace primes demand. The program's ITAR-free architecture also creates a distinct qualification pathway that other European defense platforms may follow, potentially opening a protected market segment for domestic AM suppliers. For the broader industry, this is a concrete data point that metal AM can sustain program-level production commitments in defense aerospace, not just low-volume or replacement-part applications.