‘Advanced Manufacturing Olympics’ To Shape New Air Force Strategy

WASHINGTON: Advanced manufacturing techniques, including 3D printing and digital engineering, will be critical to slashing the astronomical costs of upkeep for aircraft and satellites, Air Force leaders said today in kicking off the service’s first Advanced Manufacturing Olympics (AMO) contest today.

“Advanced manufacturing, scaled across the entire Air Force and Space Force, will transform sustainment,” Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said. “The Air Force and Space Force will build on solutions you are developing during these Olympics. This year, the Rapid Sustainment Office designated a team laser focused on creating a comprehensive strategy to scale advanced manufacturing across the Air and Space Forces. Your inputs are fundamental to determining this roadmap. You will directly influence this strategy.”

“So much of what we do is in the realm of sustainment,” explained Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper. “In fact, it’s 70 percent in terms of budget of what the Air Force and now Space Force do for a living — 70 percent! That is a lion’s share, but it really is the part of the iceberg that’s below the surface of the water.”

Roper said AMO is exploring a number of ways to do that. “We want to make parts that we currently can’t supply easily. We want to reverse engineer parts that we may not have the designs for anymore. We want to look at repeatability of parts, so that we’re not critically coupled to an individual printing machine. And we want to look at the entire process, and have what it takes to get a novelty manufactured part on to a mission-critical airplane or satellite. So, our events are meant to tackle challenges that are real challenges today.”

The average age of Air Force aircraft is about 29 years but some aircraft have been in the fleet much longer, like the B-52 Stratofortress first introduced 68 years ago. The Air Force has been struggling — and up to now, pretty much losing — the battle to afford force modernization while boosting readiness because of this.

Roper has been a champion of so-called challenge competitions like the AMO contest and the Agility Prime initiative on flying cars. They award small prizes to technology innovators, designed not only to find specific technical solutions but to expand the defense industrial base by creating new dual-use markets.

The idea of AMO was to increase interest in solving a number of interlinked problems, from the need for innovative solutions to specific issues such as how to expand the use of metals in 3D printing to how to build a talent pool of technicians.

“Let’s make it fun. Let’s put real challenges on the table things that will make a difference for the Air Force and the warfighter today. Let’s use this as a venue to find new talent in 3d printing and other technical fields. Let’s let it be an opportunity for small companies and large to send their calling card to the broader community that they are pushing the envelope,” he said.

There are five key technological “choke points” that the AMO challenges are aimed at addressing, said Lt. Gen. Shaun Morris, new head of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) and RSO program executive officer. “We may, at the end of this Advanced Manufacturing Olympics, hopefully have found solutions to some of those choke points that may reveal new choke points that we have to get after.”

The RSO is playing a key role in the week-long AMO, he said, focusing on how to rapidly scale technological solutions. Indeed, Morris noted, the RSO earlier this week was elevated to a permanent organization with Barrett’s signing of its charter.

“The areas we’re interested in are broad,” Roper elaborated. “We are interested in composites. We’re interested in polymers. We’re interested in metals. We’re interested in reverse engineering. We’re interested in having systemic and replicatable results across different kinds of machines. We’re interested in being able to certify these parts as being safe to fly on mission-critical aircraft. Bottom line: we’re interested in a lot.”

Barrett said that advanced manufacturing, while in its infancy at DoD, is already showing promise for both Air Force and Space Force efforts.

For example, she said, the service used 3D printing to re-create a ubiquitous part on the aging C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft, that first entered service in 1969. That piece, a “phenolic wedge” is “a small but critical piece between the center wing box and the inner wing splice,” she explained.

“There are 118 phenolic wedges on each C-5, and because of moisture and age, the wedges on every C-5 need to be replaced,” she said. “In all, more than 6,000 parts are needed. To efficiently produce replacement parts, the Rapid Sustainment Office turned to 3D printing. The result: a wedge that is produced at 8 percent faster, is 35 percent lighter, and saves almost a million dollars across the C-5 fleet.”

(The C-5, in fact, has been one of AFLCM’s guinea pigs for 3D printing. As we reported last year at the annual Air Force Association event, one of the first 3D printed parts flown on a military aircraft was a toilet seat cover for the C-5.)

Advanced manufacturing also is becoming increasingly important to the Space Force, Barrett said.

“Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites were launched with a remote interface unit, produced by advanced manufacturing outlets and Delta rockets are leaving the Earth’s atmosphere with 3D printed components onboard,” she elaborated. “Advanced manufacturing is being incorporated into the next- generation intercontinental ballistic missiles. And the Space Force is exploring, in space, advanced manufacturing capabilities technology that will reduce the need for resupply missions.”

Indeed, Roper noted that up to now there are almost 10,000 3D printed parts being used across the Air Force, “many of which are flying today on aircraft at this moment.”

Lily Arcusa, RSO chief tech officer, explained that the AMO will give out cash prizes to 15 winning teams during the AMO event. There is a total of $1 million in prize money on the table. The specific challenges are as follows:

• The Box of Parts Challenge. Teams will demonstrate the ability to scan and 3D print parts that have been reverse-engineered without a blueprint.
• The F-16 Approval Sprint. Teams are competing to develop a flight-worthy part that will be used on the current fleet.
• The Material Hurdles. Competitors will demo new aluminum, polymer and hybrid (combination of both) materials for making parts, which will be judged on their strength and ease of use.
• The Supply Chain Marathon. The teams will roll out their competing strategies for increasing advanced manufacturing capacity and capabilities within the Air Force, answering questions such as how many 3D printing machines should the service buy and where should they locate them to maximize their efficient use?  As Breaking D readers know, AFLCMC is buying 3D printers and teaching airmen to use them at selected depots.
• The Technical Data Package Challenge. Teams are competing to develop an easily shareable technical data package that allows materials printed on one type of 3D printer to be easily printed on another type in another location.