Firestorm Labs 3D-Printed Parts Aboard USS Essex During RIMPAC 2026

While most 3D printing demonstrations happen in a climate-controlled lab, Firestorm Labs took its portable factory to one of the roughest environments imaginable: the deck of the USS Essex during RIMPAC 2026. The Florida company says it printed thousands of unique parts while the ship pitched through Sea State 5 waves off the California coast, and the hardware kept running.

The xCell unit

Firestorm's system is called xCell. It is built around HP multi-jet fusion technology, which uses nylon powder fused layer by layer with inkjet-like printheads. The entire setup fits inside two 20-foot shipping containers. That matters for logistics. The unit can be loaded onto a ship, driven to a forward operating base, or dropped into a disaster zone without special tooling. During RIMPAC, the containers sat on the flight deck of the USS Essex and ran while the ship maneuvered.

What they printed

The catalog of parts printed at sea includes replacement stops that prevent Apache helicopter rotors from scraping against the ship's non-skid coating, brackets, adapters, and a dozen Squall first-person-view drones. Those drones were not just showpieces. They were later used as adversary aircraft during a counter-drone exercise, which means they were loaded with mission profiles, flown, and presumably shot at or recovered. That is a hard test for a 3D-printed airframe.

Why HP MJF at sea

HP's multi-jet fusion process is powder-based, which makes it more tolerant of vibration than filament or resin systems. The powder bed supports the part during printing, so the layer adhesion does not depend on the printer staying perfectly level. Firestorm CEO Dan Magy told Defense One that the machines proved resilient even in the roughest water off the California coast in five years. The nylon composite material they use is also chemically resistant and has decent strength-to-weight, which fits the military use case.

The logistics argument

Firestorm is not selling printers. It is selling a contested logistics solution. Magy's pitch is straightforward: a factory in Alabama or California is great until a part breaks in the South China Sea and the supply chain is blocked. Having the ability to print the replacement at the point of need, from a digital file that travels instantly, changes the sustainment model for legacy equipment. The Marines already made a specific request for Firestorm and the Army's DEVCOM Armaments Center to look into an automated diagnosis-and-printing pipeline for broken electronics components.

What this means for additive manufacturing

This is the second consecutive RIMPAC where 3D printing played a visible role aboard ship. Last year, Snowbird Technologies brought a portable metal 3D printer to the exercise. Firestorm's presence shows that polymer MJF is now mature enough to operate in a maritime environment without constant recalibration. The combination of metal and polymer capabilities at sea gives commanders two very different material options for the same logistics problem.

The catch

Multi-jet fusion is fast and dimensionally stable, but the machines are not cheap, and the powder requires careful handling. Firestorm's business model relies on service contracts and on-site deployments rather than selling boxes. For the Navy, that means the technology works, but the cost structure is different from buying a desktop printer and running it in a workshop. Whether this becomes standard issue or stays a specialized capability will depend on budget cycles, not technical readiness.