3D Systems Gets $9M More to Finish Air Force Hypersonic Metal Printer

The U.S. Air Force has handed 3D Systems another $9 million, pushing the total committed to the Large-Format Metal 3D Printer Advanced Technology Demonstrator program to $27.4 million. The new tranche covers the final push toward the GEN-II DMP-1000, a machine designed to print large, high-temperature metal structures for hypersonic flight applications. The deadline is 27 September 2027.

A program built in slices

The work opened in September 2023 with a $10.8 million contract. That covered the first two years of proving out the underlying technologies: large-format metal deposition, thermal management at scale, and the process controls needed for structures that will see hypersonic heating profiles. An $7.65 million second tranche followed in August 2025, extending the timeline and softening the stated target from hypersonic environments to high-speed flight applications. The machine now carries the GEN-II DMP-1000 designation and a revised completion date.

The $9 million announced this week is the third and largest slice. It funds the integration and build phase, where the demonstrated subsystems have to become a single deliverable system.

The hardware problem is genuinely hard

3D Systems' largest commercial metal platform, the DMP 350, builds inside a 500mm cube. Hypersonic airframe structures need high-temperature metal parts printed whole at roughly twice that dimension. No vendor had commercial justification to build a machine at that scale alone. The Air Force program is filling that gap by underwriting the risk directly.

The demonstrator sits inside the business segment 3D Systems expects to grow fastest. Aerospace & Defense is projected as the company's fastest-growing industrial line, with over 20% growth in 2026 and more than $35 million coming from production systems and custom metal parts. Second quarter 2026 revenue of $94.6 million was essentially flat year-over-year, but printer sales rose more than 45%, led by the DMP 350 metal system and the SLA 825 polymer platform. Metal hardware is the part of the portfolio actually converting.

A leadership transition in mid-program

The complicating factor is that 3D Systems is searching for its next president and CEO. Dr. Jeffrey Graves will remain in post until a successor is appointed, expected later this year, then consult for six months. The funding is committed and the deadline fixed, but the demonstrator now has to be delivered across a change of management rather than by the team that started it.

It is not an unusual situation in defense contracting, but it adds execution risk to a program that was already pushing technical boundaries. The new CEO will inherit a high-profile Air Force program at a critical stage, along with the broader task of convincing investors that 3D Systems can convert its defense wins into sustained commercial momentum.

Where the demonstrator fits

The Air Force is running the same underwriting model across its additive supplier base. Continuous Composites holds a multi-year contract to mature its Continuous Fiber 3D process. Elementum 3D and Divergent Technologies are on EWAAC, the $46 billion vehicle that pre-qualifies capability providers instead of running competitive bids for each requirement.

AFRL is also funding adjacent problems. PADAM 2.0 put $6 million against refractory alloys, the high-temperature metals the DMP-1000 exists to print. Delta Qual 2.0, a separate $9 million effort, targets the qualification process itself: the step between a working printer and a flying part.

What 3D Systems has to deliver by 2027 is the machine. Everything around it, from qualification to integration onto an airframe, belongs to other programs and other teams. The GEN-II DMP-1000 is the tool that makes those later steps possible. Whether it arrives on time, and under new leadership, is the question the next twelve months will answer.