U.S. additive manufacturing innovation institute America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), a defense manufacturing and machining organization, have named six winners for the Joint Additive Qualification for Sustainment, Supplier Qualification project call. Funded through the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office, the $1.7 million JAQS-SQ Group 1 effort is designed to support qualified additive manufacturing production for the defense industrial base. The project focuses on training and supporting manufacturers as they work to meet required process control documents for government production.
Selected suppliers include 3D Systems, a U.S. 3D printing company; Alloyed, a company focused on metal alloy design and additive manufacturing; Howco Additive, an additive manufacturing business connected to industrial metals supply; Rennscot, a precision manufacturing company; Velo3D, a metal additive manufacturing systems manufacturer; and Divergent Technologies, a digital manufacturing company using additive manufacturing in production workflows. The project call initially anticipated up to five awards, but Group 1 includes six suppliers focused on laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) production capabilities.
JAQS-SQ targets two problems identified in the project announcement. Limited additive manufacturing training and audit programs that meet established standards continue to affect government confidence. A restrictive part-by-part qualification process also limits capacity and efficiency, making it harder for additive manufacturing suppliers to support defense sustainment at broader scale. The project addresses those constraints by connecting supplier training, audit preparation, and process control documentation to government acquisition requirements.
Process control documents are central to the program because they define the requirements suppliers must meet for qualified additive manufacturing production. The first group supports additive manufacturing contract manufacturers as they implement essential process controls for government work. Rather than framing qualification only around individual parts, the project places attention on suppliers and their ability to meet documented production requirements. That distinction matters for defense programs that need qualified capacity across the supply chain, not only isolated demonstrations.
Group 1 marks the first supplier cohort under the broader JAQS initiative. America Makes is reviewing submissions for Groups 2 and 3, with additional award announcements anticipated this summer. Project teams will report progress during program execution at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange (TRX), and other industry events.
America Makes targets qualification bottlenecks across defense AM
Recent America Makes and NCDMM project calls show the current supplier awards are part of a wider effort to reduce qualification barriers in defense additive manufacturing. A $25.6 million funding package split between MIAMI and INSITE focuses on two constraints that sit upstream and downstream of supplier qualification: material substitution and inspection. MIAMI will test whether additively manufactured metals can replace legacy alloys in Department of War weapon system components, while INSITE will combine in-situ monitoring with post-build inspection to support defect detection and qualification for large, dense, and complex metal parts.
A separate $14.5 million qualification push also targeted process-level limits in defense AM. Delta Qual 2.0 allocated $9 million to LPBF machine calibration, installation standards, flexible process boundaries, and independent technical review, all aimed at reducing requalification burdens. GOTHAAM added $5.5 million to generate material property data for a high-strength aluminum alloy across small, medium, and large-format LPBF systems. Together, those projects clarify the constraint behind the new supplier cohort: defense AM adoption depends not only on more suppliers, but on qualified materials, documented process controls, inspection methods, and repeatable production data.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
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Featured image shows America Makes logo. Image via America Makes.
