Geopolitical instability has intensified in the last couple of years and the war between Russia and Ukraine and the US-Israel-Iran conflict have reshaped the dynamics of modern warfare, especially the role and growing importance of drones. Ukraine's defence industry now has the capacity to produce more than 8 million so called First Person View (FPV) drones annually, which stream real time video from the drone to an operator, while more than 160 companies are involved in their production. This trend for greater drone use was explored in a recent blog post 'Growing demand for cheap drones: how recent conflicts are reshaping the future of unmanned systems'.
Such a scale of drone use and production is creating a parallel requirement for manufacturing technologies that can support rapid design changes, localised production, and shorter supply chains. As a result, additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, is gaining greater importance in the drone ecosystem.
This blog primarily explores the advantages of using 3D printing in drone manufacturing and highlights countries and vendors that have implemented initiatives to encourage the adoption of 3D printing for drones. To learn more about drones, read our report: Unmanned Aquatic & Aerial Vehicles (Drones): A regulated industry with 100 million connected devices in 2035.
There are certain fundamental advantages that 3D printing enables in drone manufacturing, as discussed below.
The fundamental advantage of 3D printing for drones is its ability to quickly produce physical components without requiring dedicated tooling. This is particularly valuable, since designs can change rapidly in response to operational requirements, environmental conditions, or new technologies. Stratasys, a 3D printing company catering to drones, claims that this method can save 70% lead time, when compared to traditional methods.
Conventional manufacturing processes such as injection moulding can be more economical for very high production volumes, but they generally require tooling and longer preparation cycles. By contrast, AM can support rapid prototyping, low-volume production, and design iteration without the same tooling requirements. For example, Yantrix Technologies demonstrated the potential of 3D printing for drones by reducing a survey drone’s frame mass by 22% without compromising stiffness, resulting in an additional 6.4 minutes of flight time per sortie.
With 3D printing, critical components that are used to manufacture or assemble drones can be digitally redesigned and manufactured locally, while spares and parts for maintenance and manufacturing can be provided without the need to maintain large inventories of physical parts. For instance, the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA), stationed in Mali, reduced operational costs by 47% across 14 components and cut spare-parts storage space by 72% using on-site 3D printers.
This section of the blog explains the steps that some countries have taken to promote the adoption of 3D printing for drones.
The Royal Australian Air Force is using advanced 3D printing to rapidly prototype and refine an autonomous ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) drone through its EDGY innovation programme. By June 2026, when the field trials were announced, the project had evolved from a concept into a demonstration-ready system, with advanced 3D printing enabling rapid design, testing, and refinement while reducing development costs and time. The programme is now undergoing trials to validate telemetry and other performance characteristics.
India is strengthening the national additive-manufacturing ecosystem while simultaneously pursuing self-reliant drone manufacturing. Its National Strategy for Additive Manufacturing promotes domestic AM capabilities and distributed production, while the 2026 National Defence Industries Conclave brought additive manufacturing into India's defence-manufacturing agenda. At the same event, the Defence Minister called for India to become a global hub for drone manufacturing, with a particular focus on the domestic production of drone components.
Moreover, India’s 39 Gorkha Training Centre (GTC) has developed 3D-printed surveillance drones, whose broken parts can be quickly replaced as required. The drone structures are made within one day and then other components like flight controller and batteries are fitted.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to develop SkysPrinter, the country’s first 3D-printed UAV. The electrically powered UAV consisted of 26 3D-printed parts made from materials including metal, nylon and carbon. Using selective laser sintering (SLS), the programme enabled UAV designs to be rapidly modified and produced in response to operational feedback, including changes to payload requirements. In addition, since 2025, Massivit (a traditional producer and supplier of 3D-printed parts for Disney, DreamWorks, and Netflix) has been supplying Israeli defence forces with 3D-printed military drone parts.
Singapore's Ministry of Defence reported in October 2019 that the Army's Maintenance & Engineering Support (MES) formation had designed and built drones using 3D printing for the drone body. The initiative produced six working prototypes, which were field-tested and passed safety and security assessments. Most significantly, the Ministry stated that 3D printing reduced the development timeline from approximately 18 months under the usual procurement process to just four months. The were subsequently plans for trials across Army units.
Ukraine's Ministry of Defence's ‘Library of Components’ provides defence manufacturers with access to Ukrainian-made components, including FPV drone frames, flight controllers and propellers. Crucially, the platform also offers 3D-printing manufacturing services to weapons and military-equipment manufacturers. Almost 200 Ukrainian manufacturers had access to the platform as of September 2025. For example, at VERBA’s drone factory, 30 3D printers are operating simultaneously to manufacture various components for FPV drones. The factory was reportedly producing around 5,000 FPV drones per month by 2024.
In March 2026, the US Army’s DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory developed SPARTA, an experimental small drone that uses 3D printing to enable an easy-to-assemble and customisable design. Developed with input from soldiers, the 3D-printable drone combines vertical take-off and landing with fixed-wing flight, improving endurance compared with conventional quad-rotor drones. SPARTA has an expected flight time of 30 to 60 minutes, with a range of more than 30 kilometres based on payload, while operating below 500 feet above ground level. In 2025, Hawaii-based 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (MBCT) used Stratasys F370 3D printers to print around 100 drones in the Philippines. Leveraging the benefits of 3D printing they were able to assemble 3-4 drones per hour.
Several defence and aerospace companies are moving beyond using 3D printing merely for prototyping and are applying 3D printing to military drone production, distributed manufacturing and rapid replacement of UAV components. Some of the most relevant examples are discussed below.
Firestorm Labs has developed xCell, a containerised additive-manufacturing system that uses HP Multi Jet Fusion technology to produce military UAVs and components at the point of need. Recently, aboard the USS Essex, Firestorm Labs used xCell to produce more than 1,000 parts and 12 Squall drones. Its Tempest Group 2 UAS is specifically designed for production using xCell.
North Systems is developing Outpost, a containerised additive manufacturing cell designed for forward-deployed production of large fixed-wing drones. The system uses multiple 3D printers to manufacture UAV airframes, while also supporting rapid production of spares and repairs. The company aims to produce 100+ drones per week per container through forward-deployed 3D printing. This moves additive manufacturing from a factory-based prototyping tool towards deployable drone manufacturing.
Sygnis is combining additive manufacturing with the production of military FPV drones through two initiatives: Deployable Advanced Manufacturing (DAM) and the European Drone Factory (EFD). DAM uses mobile, containerised manufacturing units to produce components and spare parts close to the point of need, reducing dependence on conventional supply chains. Meanwhile, the EFD is developing an automated production line for FPV drones intended for military and security applications and aims to produce around 1 million drones annually. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how additive manufacturing can support a more distributed and flexible drone-manufacturing model, particularly where rapid production and logistical independence are important.
Ukrainian drone manufacturer Wild Hornets has increasingly incorporated desktop FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3D printers into its wartime production process, using printers from manufacturers such as Bambu Lab and Elegoo to manufacture drone components and accelerate design iterations. Recent reporting says the company produces approximately 100 drones per day, with 3D printing supporting its ability to rapidly adapt designs.
Ongoing wars are shortening the feedback loop between drone design, battlefield experience and manufacturing. Designs can evolve rapidly, while 3D printing provides a mechanism for producing prototypes and selected components without waiting for conventional tooling and production cycles. This is likely to make additive manufacturing an increasingly important part of the broader UAV manufacturing stack. The future is however unlikely to be one in which every drone is entirely 3D printed. Instead, hybrid manufacturing may become the order of the day: conventional processes for high-volume structural production and 3D printing for rapid iteration, customised components, some tooling and selected replacement parts.
The Ukraine conflict has demonstrated the strategic importance of producing drones at unprecedented scale, while other militaries are now investing in the manufacturing capabilities needed to respond to this new reality. For the additive manufacturing industry, this represents a significant opportunity. As drones become more numerous, more specialised and faster to evolve, the ability to manufacture components digitally, locally and on demand could become almost as important as the drone technology itself.
