LIG D&A and LIG Precision Technology establish Metal AM Center for mass production of metal 3D printed defense parts
Hardware
Originally reported by biz.chosun.com
LIG D&A, a South Korean defense and aerospace systems company, and its subsidiary LIG Precision Technology have launched a Metal Additive Manufacturing Center dedicated to mass production of metal 3D printed parts for defense applications. The facility, located in Pangyo, is equipped with multiple metal LPBF systems and targets initial annual output of several thousand parts, including radar housings, missile guidance structures, and actuator brackets. The center is designed to scale as qualification cycles progress, aligning with South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration push to integrate AM into military supply chains for both new production and legacy spare parts.
This development fits the accelerating defense AM adoption wave seen globally in 2025–26, where governments actively de-risk additive manufacturing for mission-critical components. Unlike aerospace, where qualification timelines historically stretch over a decade, defense procurement in South Korea and elsewhere is leveraging AM to reduce reliance on imported castings and shorten lead times. LIG's move mirrors patterns at US primes such as Lockheed Martin and RTX, but with a distinct domestic supply rationale. The center positions LIG to capture value across the AM value chain — powder supply, machine operation, and post-processing — though the real frontier is not printer throughput but part certification under military standards (e.g., MIL-STD-810, KDS) and repeatable process control across a production fleet.
For LIG D&A, the immediate execution priority is moving from prototyping to formal qualification of at least three reference parts under AS9100D or equivalent Korean defense quality systems. Without that, the center remains a capability showcase rather than a production asset. The broader takeaway for the AM industry: defense vertical growth is real, but its pace is gated by qualification infrastructure, not by printer capacity.
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