Flight-Certified and Made In-House: How a U.S. Military Depot Is Rethinking Aircraft Sustainment

The U.S. military is increasingly turning to additive manufacturing not as an experimental tool, but as a strategic response to a structural problem: supply chains that were never built for the speed of modern conflict. The latest example comes from Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE), a U.S. Navy aircraft depot in North Carolina, which has qualified, produced, and delivered its first flight-certified metal 3D printed parts entirely in-house, completing the process in under six months.

Flight-Certified, Fleet-Ready

To manufacture these flight-ready parts, FRCE used a laser-based metal additive manufacturing process in which a high-powered laser welds thin layers of aluminum powder into dense, solid components. Like traditionally manufactured components, these parts required full qualification before deployment, meeting the same stringent aerospace safety and quality standards.

Using this process, FRCE produced and delivered three non-flight-critical, flight-certified components across multiple aircraft platforms: a weapons pylon fitting for the AH-1Z Viper, a landing gear repair fitting for the V-22 Osprey, and a blanking plate for the C-130 Hercules.