Right now, somewhere in the Pacific, a shipping container bolted to the USS Essex holds something no supply officer had twenty years ago: a machine that can 3D print a metal part, then mill it to final tolerance, without ever touching land. It is part of RIMPAC 2026, the world's largest international maritime exercise, and it might be the clearest signal yet of where manufacturing is headed.
What Is Actually on the Ship
Phillips Federal, the government arm of Phillips Corporation, has deployed a containerized hybrid manufacturing system aboard the USS Essex (LHD-2), a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship. Inside the container sits a Haas TM-1P CNC mill integrated with Meltio Blue wire-laser metal deposition technology. In plain terms: one machine that can both grow metal parts layer by layer and machine them to precise final dimensions, in a single workflow.
The deployment is part of a distributed advanced manufacturing experiment run by the Naval Postgraduate School's Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE), with support from FLEETWERX. The goal is to answer a very practical question: when a critical metal component breaks at sea and the nearest warehouse is thousands of miles away, can the crew simply make a new one?
Why Hybrid Is the Interesting Part
Metal 3D printing alone rarely produces a finished part. Printed metal surfaces are typically too rough for bearing seats, sealing faces, or threaded interfaces, so parts usually travel to a machine shop for finishing. That handoff is exactly what fails when you are on a ship in the middle of the Pacific.
The Phillips system closes that loop. Meltio's wire-laser process feeds standard welding wire into a laser melt pool, depositing dense metal onto a substrate or onto a worn part that needs building back up. The Haas mill then cuts the deposited metal to spec. Repair a corroded shaft, rebuild a worn valve seat, or produce a replacement bracket from scratch: one container, one workflow, no supply chain required.
Wire-based deposition also matters for shipboard use. Metal powder is messy, reactive, and hazardous in confined spaces. Spooled welding wire is stable, cheap, and available worldwide, which makes it a far better fit for austere environments.
A Stress Test at Serious Scale
RIMPAC is held every two years and runs June 24 through July 31 this year, throughout the Hawaiian Islands and surrounding waters. RIMPAC 2026 involves more than 25,000 personnel, 40 surface ships, five submarines, and 140 aircraft. That scale is the point: the exercise evaluates whether expeditionary manufacturing can cut the time to obtain replacement parts in environments where traditional supply chains are limited or simply unavailable.
Brian Kristaponis, president of Phillips Additive Manufacturing Solutions, framed the stakes around readiness: making or repairing components near the point of need helps "keep systems operational."
What This Means If You Buy or Spec Parts
You probably do not run an amphibious assault ship. But if you manage equipment, the Navy's problem is your problem in miniature: a machine goes down, the OEM discontinued the part a decade ago, and the quoted lead time is measured in months.
The same point-of-need logic applies on land. At DC Additive Pros, we use 3D scanning and reverse engineering to capture obsolete or broken parts as accurate CAD models, then reproduce them in engineering-grade materials. No original drawings required. It is the civilian version of what CAMRE is proving at sea: stop waiting on a supply chain that no longer exists and manufacture the part where and when you need it.
For makers, the takeaway is just as encouraging. Wire-laser deposition is a reminder that additive is not one technology but a family of them, and the industrial end of that family is being trusted with mission-critical repairs on a warship. The techniques being validated at RIMPAC (hybrid workflows, print-then-machine, repair instead of replace) tend to trickle down to job shops and eventually to desktop-adjacent tools.
The Bigger Picture: Distributed Manufacturing Is Getting Real
CAMRE's experiment connects manufacturing assets across multiple locations into a collaborative network, exploring distributed logistics and maintenance in contested environments. Strip away the military framing and that is a preview of how spare parts will work everywhere: digital part files moving instead of physical inventory, with production happening close to the point of use.
That future is already practical for a lot of components. If you have a part that is broken, obsolete, or absurdly backordered, send us photos at info@dcadditivepros.com and we will tell you honestly whether scanning and printing it makes sense. And when you are ready, our build and ship service handles the whole run from quote to your loading dock, made in the USA in Rockville, Maryland.
If you are a manufacturer with additive hardware or materials you would like us to put through real-world testing, we also review gear on this blog. Reach out at info@dcadditivepros.com.
Sources: reporting from Additive Manufacturing Media, 3DPrint.com, and Metal AM on the Phillips Corporation CAMRE deployment at RIMPAC 2026.