Only 3D printing can get the Navy’s submarine plan back on track, admiral says

The U.S. Navy must 3D-print more parts if it is to build three submarines per year, a top program manager said Wednesday.

Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, the Navy’s lead buyer for attack submarines, said additive manufacturing has become essential for meeting construction schedules—and then keeping those new subs operating.

“Absolutely we need to have additive manufacturing,” Rucker told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing. “If you look across components on the ships—forgings, castings, fittings, valves, fasteners—we cannot meet the demand to be able to support building the submarines we need, as well as supporting sustainment, without going to additive manufacturing.”

The first 3D-printed parts are already starting to be installed, said Rucker, who led the Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine program before taking his current job last year.

“Already this year, we put the first part out of manufacturing on a ballistic missile submarine to ensure they could make their schedule. The second part we had, a critical valve that's needed, that valve was going to be two years late. We've reverse-engineered it; it is being [3D printed] as we speak. They will make it on that submarine by January to support its schedule,” he said.