Firestorm Labs 3D-Printed Drones Aboard USS Essex in 12-Foot Seas During RIMPAC 2026

A Factory-in-a-Box at Sea

Firestorm Labs deployed its xCell additive manufacturing platform aboard the USS Essex amphibious assault ship during RIMPAC 2026, printing over 1,000 parts and assembling 12 Squall first-person-view drones while the ship pitched through 12-foot seas. The two-week demonstration, conducted en route to the exercise in Hawaii, marks the first maritime trial of a containerized 3D printing factory operating at sea in adverse conditions.

The xCell system fits inside two 20-foot shipping containers and runs on HP multi-jet fusion technology. Firestorm CEO Dan Magy told Defense One that the seas were the roughest off the California coast in five years. The machines held up. That resilience is the whole point. If a 3D printer can survive Sea State 5, it can survive forward-deployed operations anywhere.

From Spare Parts to Combat Drones

Output fell into three buckets. Mechanical test components evaluated printer performance underway. Repair parts requested by the crew covered everything from Apache helicopter rotor stops to general maintenance items. The headline output was the 12 Squall FPV drones, which Marines from the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion later flew as adversary aircraft during a counter-drone exercise at Makua Military Reservation on Oahu.

Every part printed on deck is a part that does not need to be flown or shipped across contested waters. The math is straightforward. A ship at sea resupplied by air or surface convoy spends fuel, aircraft hours, and personnel just to keep running. Parts that once meant days of waiting can now arrive in hours while the vessel stays on station.

Training as Much as Printing

The demonstration included hands-on training for sailors, soldiers, and Marines. Service members learned additive manufacturing workflows, drone assembly, and flight operations. That knowledge transfer matters as much as the hardware. The Navy is not just testing a printer; it is testing whether a ship's crew can operate one without a civilian contractor present.

The USS Essex deployment was part of the Naval Postgraduate School's CAMRE program, a distributed advanced manufacturing network facilitated by FLEETWERX. It represents a deliberate shift in military logistics thinking: build it where you need it, not where it is cheapest to manufacture.

What This Means for Defense 3D Printing

The RIMPAC demonstration aligns with broader Pentagon interest in expeditionary manufacturing. The Department of Defense has been increasing funding for additive manufacturing at the point of need, from metal rocket engine components to field repair of vehicles. Firestorm's contribution is specifically about speed, scale, and mobility. A pair of 20-foot containers that can produce drones and spare parts on any flight deck is a different logistical model from a centralized print farm.

The nylon composite filament used by xCell covers a broad range of applications, from prosthetics to drones to humanitarian relief items. The military use case is the headline, but the underlying capability has commercial implications for disaster response and remote infrastructure.

RIMPAC 2026 provided a harsh but realistic test environment. Firestorm Labs did not just prove the concept. It proved the concept while the ship rolled in heavy seas. That is a credible data point for anyone evaluating expeditionary manufacturing for real operations.