Virginia-Class Sub Gets Its First 3D Printed Metal Part
3D PrintingOn March 18, 2026, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard installed a copper-nickel flange on USS Washington — and the part was 3D printed. It is the first welded metal additive manufacturing component installed on an in-service Virginia-class submarine, and it establishes a certification threshold the US Navy has been working toward for years.
A copper-nickel flange is not a cosmetic component. It connects valves, pumps, and piping segments in submarine systems that must withstand high pressure, persistent corrosion, and continuous operational stress. That a 3D printed component passed certification for that use case is the substance of the milestone.
Why This Is Different From a Proof of Concept
Defense organizations have been printing non-structural components for years: brackets, handles, form-fit-function test pieces. The USS Washington installation is different on three dimensions: the material (copper-nickel, an alloy with demanding corrosion resistance requirements for marine environments), the installation method (welded, not bolted or clipped in place), and the platform (an operational Virginia-class submarine, not a test bed or decommissioned hull).
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Commander Captain Jesse Nice stated it plainly: “For the first time, we forged a submarine component that met the fleet’s most rigorous technical specifications.” Commodore Jason Deichler of Submarine Squadron TWO called it “a war fighting enabler and a key component to enhanced undersea readiness.”
The language matters. Defense officials describe a lot of things as milestones. Calling something a warfighting enabler signals that operational benefit — not just manufacturing precedent — is the evaluation criteria.
What Distributed Manufacturing Unlocks
The installation validates a capability with implications that extend well beyond one part. Submarine maintenance and repair has historically been tightly coupled to a small number of specialized shipyards. Long lead times for replacement components are a persistent operational constraint — one that worsens under supply chain pressure or geopolitical disruption.
Metal additive manufacturing can decouple part availability from traditional supply chain geography. A digital part file can, in principle, be produced on an aircraft carrier, at a forward operating base, or at any facility with qualified equipment and material stock. The certification precedent established on USS Washington — that welded metal AM parts can meet Virginia-class standards — expands the set of locations where equivalent parts can eventually be produced.
The US Army’s concurrent announcement of 3D printed barracks construction at Fort Bliss in the same week suggests this is a convergent moment across defense branches, not a single isolated program.
The So What
The USS Washington milestone is not primarily about one flange. It establishes that welded metal additive manufacturing can meet the certification bar for operational submarine use — a bar that includes material qualification, weld inspection, and performance standards under military specifications. Every subsequent part that follows that pathway benefits from the precedent. For the additive manufacturing industry broadly, defense certification at this level is the highest-value validation that metal AM has crossed from prototyping into production — at the most demanding specification floor available.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels
Source: 3DPrint.com
Content created with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy.
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