North Carolina’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) has delivered first flight-certified, non-flight-critical metal parts, produced in-house via additive manufacturing, improving downtime and readiness.
Three platforms have already benefited: the weapons pylon fitting for the AH-1Z Viper, the repair fitting for the main landing gear on the V-22 Osprey, and a blanking plate for the C-130 Hercules, each receiving components that went through the same safety and quality validation as anything coming off a conventional production line.
The effort was carried out in partnership with the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Additive Manufacturing Team and Fleet Support Teams, with FRCE’s Advanced Technology and Innovation Team leading the technical development and certification work.
Six Months to Certified: The Fastest Capability Demonstration Within NAVAIR
Bringing parts production in-house has fundamentally altered how the depot approaches fleet support. The full qualification, production, and certification cycle, a process known for its complexity in military aviation, was completed in under six months, setting a new speed record within Naval Air Systems Command.
The first component to earn flight certification at the depot was a pylon fitting, a modest-sized bracket that connects weapons systems to the AH-1Z Viper’s airframe. It reached the H-1 Fleet Support Team in early 2025, with two more parts following before the year was out: a repair fitting for the V-22 Osprey’s main landing gear, handed off to its respective Fleet Support Team, and a blanking plate destined for the C-130 Hercules.
The equipment hasn’t been limited to airworthy parts alone. The same machines have been put to work producing custom tooling and auxiliary components for the depot’s own repair crews, tightening up maintenance workflows from the ground up.
“We were challenged to complete the qualification, production and certification processes for these parts in six months, and we not only met but exceeded that standard,” the team lead said. “This is the fastest this sort of thing has ever been done within Naval Air Systems Command, and it shows that we are competitive with industry standards. This entire process has been a team effort between FRC East, our headquarters, the site in Lakehurst, and the Fleet Support Teams, working together to ensure these parts are ready and reliable for our troops.”
Looking ahead, FRCE is preparing to extend its metal additive manufacturing operation to include stainless steel. The material’s greater strength and durability relative to aluminum will broaden the range of flight-critical components the depot can produce in-house, moving the program closer to full-spectrum on-demand parts support for the fleet.
When the Supply Chain Breaks, the Printer Runs
FRCE’s on-demand parts program is a direct response to a vulnerability that conventional military logistics has long struggled to address: the gap between what the fleet needs and what procurement pipelines can reliably deliver. By bringing certified metal additive manufacturing in-house, the depot is reframing parts availability as a production problem rather than a sourcing one.
That shift is playing out across U.S. defense at scale. The University of Oklahoma and Oak Ridge National Laboratory secured $8.8 million to advance a joint program with the Air Force Sustainment Center built around the same premise: warplanes in service for six decades or more increasingly depend on components conventional supply chains can no longer provide, making on-demand manufacturing a readiness issue, not just a logistics one.
Certification is the bottleneck, which is why America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining launched a $1.7 million funding call to expand the pool of DoD-qualified additive suppliers, replacing the slow, part-by-part qualification approach that has historically held the Defense Industrial Base back.
At the procurement level, the JAMA IV contract vehicle was purpose-built to cut through that friction, creating a direct channel for certified, flight-safety-critical additive parts to reach the services faster.
FRCE’s six-month certification record doesn’t just solve a parts shortage. It shows that depot-level additive manufacturing can move at the speed the fleet actually operates.
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 First flight-certified metal parts, produced in-house via additive manufacturing. Photo via FRCE.
