3D Systems Gets $9M to Finish Air Force's Giant Metal 3D Printer

What 3D Systems has to deliver

The Air Force wants a machine that does not exist yet. Current commercial metal 3D printers max out around a 500mm cube. Hypersonic airframes need high-temperature structures printed whole at roughly twice that size. No vendor had commercial reason to build it alone. So the Air Force is underwriting the risk.

The $9 million announced last week is the latest tranche of a $27.4 million program that started in September 2023. The first $10.8 million covered initial design and proof-of-concept work at 3D Systems facilities in Rock Hill, South Carolina and San Diego, California. A second $7.65 million arrived in August 2025 and pushed the completion date to September 2027. The goal shifted slightly along the way: from hypersonic environments to high-speed flight applications. The hardware name changed too, to GEN-II DMP-1000.

Why the timing is tricky

3D Systems is delivering this machine through a leadership transition. Dr. Jeffrey Graves, the CEO who framed the original contract, is preparing to retire. The company has opened a search for his successor, with an expected appointment later this year. Graves will stay on as a consultant for six months. The demonstrator deadline is fixed at 2027, and the team that started the work may not be the team that finishes it.

That said, the funding is committed. The Air Force runs these programs in stages, but the money for this tranche is already allocated. The real pressure is on execution, not financing.

The market behind the military money

3D Systems expects aerospace and defense to be its fastest-growing industrial segment in 2026, with over 20 percent growth projected. Q2 2026 printer sales rose more than 45 percent, led by the DMP 350 metal system and the SLA 825 polymer platform. Metal hardware is converting from prototype interest to production orders. The Air Force demonstrator is meant to extend that trend upward in scale.

The broader defense additive market is crowded. Continuous Composites holds a multi-year contract for continuous fiber 3D printing. Elementum 3D and Divergent Technologies are on the $46 billion EWAAC program. AFRL is separately funding refractory alloy research through PADAM 2.0 and qualification work through Delta Qual 2.0. What 3D Systems has to prove by 2027 is simple: can it build a printer big enough, reliable enough, and qualified fast enough to move from laboratory to flight?