USS Essex Carried a 3D-Printed Drone Factory During RIMPAC 2026

A containerized factory at sea

The USS Essex carried something unusual on its two-week voyage from San Diego to Hawaii for RIMPAC 2026: a factory. San Diego-based Firestorm Labs deployed its xCell platform aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, printing more than 1,000 parts and 12 complete drones entirely at sea. The system ran inside two standard 20-foot shipping containers, proving that expeditionary manufacturing does not need a port or a calm berth.

Waves reached 12 feet during the crossing. The xCell kept running. Sailors assembled the printed parts into 12 Squall first-person-view quadcopters, then flew them as adversary aircraft during a counter-drone exercise at RIMPAC. The crew also printed mechanical test components and repair parts the ship needed, without waiting for a resupply ship.

How the xCell works

Firestorm Labs designed xCell as a factory-in-a-box. Inside the containers sit industrial HP Multi Jet Fusion printers and semi-automated assembly stations. Feed the system a design file and it produces a complete, ready-to-fly drone airframe in nine to 24 hours. A single unit can turn out roughly 50 Group 2 drones per month. The platform is built for expeditionary warfare: deploy it, print what you need, move on.

The USS Essex transit gave Firestorm Labs its first real sea trial. The company announced the results on August 5, 2026. The test showed the system works in conditions that would ground most conventional manufacturing setups. Sea State 5 conditions did not stop the printers from producing mission-capable hardware.

Why the Navy cares

The Defense Department has been pushing modular payload capabilities that deliver mission-ready assets quickly. A ship that can print its own spare parts and drones reduces the logistics tail. Instead of waiting for a supply chain that stretches across the Pacific, the Essex can replace broken components or lost drones while underway. That matters for high-end combat and for humanitarian missions alike.

RIMPAC 2026 also involved Snowbird Technologies, a Florida company that produced 316L stainless steel components aboard the Essex. The presence of multiple additive manufacturing systems on one ship signals that the Navy is treating in-situ production as an operational requirement, not an experiment.

The bigger picture

Three-dimensional printing has been moving from prototyping to production for years. What Firestorm Labs demonstrated is that the transition is now happening in one of the hardest possible environments: a moving ship in the Pacific. The xCell is not a laboratory curiosity. It is a deployable asset that produced usable drones under real operational conditions. If the Navy scales this capability, future fleets will carry fewer spare parts in inventory and more raw material they can shape into what they actually need.