US Army 3D prints military drones

The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) has plans underway to revolutionize military drone creation in preparation for their upcoming division training exercise – Operation Lethal Eagle – leveraging 3D printing technology. The Division has started 3D printing small-unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) at the EagleWerx Applied Tactical Innovation Center at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

“This is bigger than simply printing parts. We are reshaping the sUAS enterprise at the tactical level,” said Col. Travis McIntosh, deputy commanding officer for support of the 101st ABN DIV. He said the project will impact the entire unit as it would affect “how we do small UAS in the division, from airworthiness to parts ordering, to fielding and training.”

The plan to build the systems at Fort Campbell came as a cooperative effort from the Division and 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Soldiers asked for sUAS that were more versatile, durable, and expendable than the standard previously fielded versions. For experimentation during the exercise, the Division and EagleWerx representatives are manufacturing 100 sUAS units and purchasing the ground control consoles – at a fraction of the cost of previously acquired sUAS’s.

Operation Lethal Eagle, a 21-day rigorous training exercise, is designed to prototype Army initiatives, train unit lethality, and build mastery of large-scale, long-range air assault (L2A2) capabilities throughout the Division. Many on the project, including Capt. Andrew Blomquist, the 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team innovation officer, are reportedly excited for the 3D printed military drones to get into the hands of the end-users permanently.

“We have done multiple Soldier touch points, demos, and flight tests so luckily, we have already received great end user feedback”, said Blomquist. “One Soldier in particular that has experience with all of the previously fielded sUAS was surprised with its performance.”

The Division’s experiment will continue in anticipation of its next major training event, in late spring at the Joint Readiness Training Center, at Fort Johnson, Louisiana.