The Pentagon has released a solicitation to identify and develop cost effective Additive Manufacturing materials, processes, and techniques sufficient to prototype and produce future components supporting current and future ICBM programs.
Specific areas to address for maximum future benefit include reducing the cost to manufacture structural parts, reducing the mass or fabrication cost of complex components, or creating an in-house capability for depots and maintenance personnel to manufacture spares on-demand.
Also of interest are concepts for adding extra functionality to existing parts such as printed circuit boards with integrated shielding with the end goal of creating production parts which are inherently hardened without a requirement for additional external shielding to reduce parts count, material, and mass.
Regardless of the material, approach, or component proposed for improvement, the final product must meet or exceed all of the technical specifications of the current component or system i.e. structural loads, operating/survival temperature, radiation shielding, EMI/EMC, vacuum compatibility, launch/flight loads, storage requirements, etc.
