America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have announced the winners of the 2026 Department of War (DoW) Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Challenge. The challenge, funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSW ManTech), will distribute up to $15M in awards across six projects. Released in cooperation with the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MII), the initiative centers on advancing additive manufacturing (AM) and related technologies to support defense manufacturing modernization.
Six Projects Selected for Funding
The winning proposals span a range of applications within defense manufacturing. Honeywell Aerospace will work on rapid production of sand castings via AM, while HRL Laboratories was selected for a project on rapid qualification of additive parts. Machina Labs will develop edge factories for producing low-cost weapon systems, and Accenture Federal Services will build an AM digital twin and operations simulation platform.
Rounding out the list, Stratasys was awarded for in-situ monitoring work applied to fused deposition modeling, and REM Surface Engineering will pursue advanced chemical and chemical-mechanical polishing technologies for additively manufactured components within the DoW OIB. Together, the projects cover software, materials qualification, robotics, and surface finishing.
Targeting Gaps Across the Defense Industrial Base
The challenge targets AM and advanced manufacturing gaps across the OIB, including digital operations technology, AI robotic process planning, in-situ quality checks, reduced operational exposure to hazards, lower operational costs, pilot lines for emerging military products, and mobile and large-surface automation. America Makes and NCDMM describe these gaps as central to national security, with the goal of ensuring a defense industrial base (DIB) capable of meeting DoW’s evolving needs.
John Wilczynski, Executive Director of America Makes, said the challenge is “accelerating the transition of those proven technologies into the organic industrial base,” adding that it will “improve day-to-day production operations and deliver measurable gains in cost, throughput, quality, and supply chain resilience.”
A Broader Push to Fund Defense-Focused AM
The OIB Modernization Challenge follows a pattern America Makes has used in earlier defense funding calls: directing awards toward a specific technical gap rather than open-ended AM research.
In May 2026, the institute launched the MIAMI and INSITE project calls, worth $25.6M combined, with MIAMI focused on material substitution for metal AM and INSITE on integrating in-situ monitoring with post-build inspection. In November 2025, it opened the CATACS project call, a $1.3M call for a corrosion-testing framework for metal AM components.
At $15M, the OIB Modernization Challenge is larger than the $1.3M CATACS call but smaller than the $25.6M combined MIAMI and INSITE calls, placing it within the range of America Makes’ recent targeted defense AM funding initiatives.
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 and NCDMM logo. Image via America Makes.
