SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii—A propeller blade that would take 18 months to replace. Parts for an expandable office that would cost hundreds of dollars to buy. A howitzer bracket that is unavailable at any price. All printed and replaced in a matter of hours at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s new advanced manufacturing facility.
“The Forge,” which its director calls the world’s only “expeditionary foundry,” isn’t meant to produce mountains of parts. Instead, the idea is to make one-of-a-kind prototypes and small batches of items that can be tested and proven for use in the military or commercial industry. It sprung from an idea about how to produce high-quality, high-precision parts at sea—as would likely be necessary during a war in the Pacific—and is envisioned as a step toward a 10,000-square foot manufacturing facility near Pearl Harbor.
But more than 3D printers and robotic welders are needed to build this more self-sustaining force of the future. The command has built an education and workforce development program in Hawaii, with project manufacturing and welding programs at schools on three different islands, and a state-of-the-art training facility with $12 million worth of Pentagon-funded machines at Honolulu Community College. Officials will cut the ribbon on that facility Wednesday.
“This capability will enable the restoration of deterrence,” Benjamin Worrell, director of the Forge and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s strategic advisor to INDOPACOM, told reporters during a tour. “You can’t restore deterrence without a capability, without people and joint forces willing to do it, without an economy and without a workforce.…You have to have them all.”
The warehouse that is now the Forge was built in 1936. Used as a horse stable in the era of towed artillery, it was later a Sherman tank repair shop, then a Stryker facility. It had been vacant for about 13 years before Worrell showed up and saw potential under its leaky roof, despite grass so tall it obscured most of the building, and feral pigs living inside.
“I was told to move fast, take more risks, because China wasn’t waiting,” he said.
Now, the building has a giant American flag hanging from its brand-new roof, and is home to a handful of 3D printing and welding machines from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, flanked by freshly painted metal support beams. Journalists are allowed to view, but not photograph, some of the one-of-a-kind prototypes, like a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer boat that can be printed in 18 hours for less than $1,000. The “very robust dinghy” ships as a flat pack, goes together with zip ties, and is intended as a one-way autonomous resupply vessel.
About 50 yards away behind a locked door, is another prototype: a first-person-view drone with a 200-kilometer range, which Worrell says is “combat-proven.” Another small room houses mini-fridge-sized 3D printers along with two Costco folding tables strewn with various modeling sensors and a hot glue gun.
Outside, in spotless conex boxes, Marines and soldiers are pouring molten metal and printing mission-critical parts for weapons and vehicles. The containers are portable makerspaces equipped with various gear. One machine is calibrated specifically to its pristine container so it can function on a ship in rough seas. Another was designed for a KC-135 and has already been on multiple airlifts. All will go to the Philippines for a military exercise later this year.
Standing next to a howitzer, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Anthony Gravely and Chief Warrant Officer 2 William Nicely explained that a certain bracket on the artillery piece—a “very fancy shock absorber,” Nicely said—had cracked during an exercise in April, but because that part is not supposed to ever fail, there was no way to replace it. Soldiers and Marines at the Forge were able to make a mold and create another one in about five hours. Then they made several more, to have them on reserve in case more break in the future.
The capability would be a “game-changer” in a conflict, Gravely said.
