Additive Manufacturing, Arms Control and Delivery Vehicles: Challenges and Ways Forward

Nuclear arms control remains a priority for the foreseeable future for many stakeholders, and proposals have emerged to focus on capping nuclear warheads of the main nuclear-weapon states.

However, delivery vehicles are another source of instability and arms race dynamics. Whether they are coupled with weapons of mass destruction or considered exclusively in the context of their use with conventional weapons, missiles are increasingly transferred, produced, modernized, and used in military conflicts.

One important element in that increase is the development of technologies for advanced additive manufacturing. The importance of this technology has already been demonstrated in the civilian sector as Rocket Lab announced that parts of its Electron rocket would be produced through additive manufacturing (Winick 2019). In 2015, the weapon manufacturer Raytheon tested a design produced 80% through additive manufacturing (Raytheon News 2015). Using this technology could lower the cost of a missile program as well as, in the long term, the expertise required (Shaw 2017).

The development of offensive capabilities can also lead to a negative regional or global spiral with the increased deployment of defensive systems, and in response, new efforts to procure offensive weapons. It is therefore useful to keep thinking about ways to limit the destabilizing effect of these weapon systems. Some legal instruments currently exist in unilateral, bilateral or multilateral forums. Their focus may be limited to nonproliferation or they may cover a broader range of issues and address the behavior of states acquiring these delivery vehicles.

This article:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/25751654.2022.2047360

will discuss ways in which these instruments can evolve to better respond to current trends and dynamics regarding missiles, but also will suggest new initiatives, particularly confidence-building measures, that could be useful to reduce the destabilizing effect of these systems.