How 3D printing can deliver the UK's defence dividend

We squandered the peace dividend. But UK manufacturing – and additive manufacturing in particular – can deliver a new defence dividend if politicians allow them to. Craig Pyser, CEO of AMufacture and chair of 3D printing trade association AMUK, explains how.

It took all of three or four hours for the holes to start to appear in the Defence Investment Plan.

That’s when it became clear that £4.7billion of the £15billion additional defence spending promised by the Prime Minister was money the government didn’t yet have.

In fact, it would be up to the new Prime Minister to find a way of raising the cash in their first Budget.

Immediately after Sir Keir’s speech unveiling the DIP – in which he made much of the jobs and opportunities the extra spending would create – I appeared on radio to stress that the government could not afford to squander the defence dividend in the same way our leaders had failed to deliver the peace dividend for the last 80 years.

The words were barely out of my mouth before things started to unravel.

For an industry which is ready and waiting to help deliver the sovereign defence capability technology we simply must develop, it is all hugely dispiriting.

Let me be clear – because I’m not sure the message has yet filtered through to the corridors of power. We are ready and able to play our part in making sure the defence dividend Sir Keir promised can be delivered.

I cannot stress this strongly enough. British manufacturing – and in particular additive manufacturers such as AMufacture – have the capability, the expertise and the innovation to meet the moment.

On paper, there’s plenty to welcome in the plan – though of course it could be still more ambitious. The £15 billion increase in defence spending over four years recognises at least some of the need for modernising the country’s defence infrastructure and the £5 billion earmarked for drones and autonomous weapons shows that lessons are being learned from the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran.

It sets out an ambitious vision of a hybrid Navy of crewed and uncrewed vessels; autonomous fighter jets flying alongside crewed aircraft; underwater platforms hunting submarines; FPV interceptor drones; electronic warfare systems and forward‑deployed autonomous units.

And by promising to buy British wherever possible, it offers the hope of a significant boost to the national economy, with tens of thousands of new jobs across the defence sector and its UK supply chain.

But the big question – particularly in light of the way the peace dividend has been frittered away – is how we ensure all this is delivered.

The Government can start by sorting out the antiquated defence procurement process which places UK SMEs at a positive disadvantage.

The current system is slow, outdated and all too often favours multinational and global manufacturers and grants them decades-long platforms. If we are serious about this country having a truly sovereign defence capability we have to back British expertise to deliver it and open up procurement much more fully to SMEs and home-based manufacturers so that we can better protect ourselves from being held hostage by global events or geopolitical uncertainty.

Government also needs to recognise the true scale of the capability we have on these shores. For 80 years we have been too slow as a nation to invest in our own manufacturing base – too readily preferring the ‘simple’ route of buying in expertise or investment from elsewhere.

When that expertise already exists here – as it most certainly does in drone manufacturing, additive manufacturing and a whole host of innovative technologies – that is a huge and costly mistake.

We need to offer incentives to manufacturers working in the defence sector to help them invest at speed and scale. This can be done quickly and effectively through steps such as discounted business rates, tax and investment reliefs, new innovation funding and grants.

And at the same time, let’s remove some of the red tape which makes it so difficult to employ people and strip away the additional costs of taking people on.

Additive manufacturing is certainly an industry which can play a huge part in delivering this defence plan.

It can bring speed, adaptability and sovereign control of resilient supply chains alongside the sort of agility which the modern military so desperately needs.

At AMufacture, we built our business around best‑in‑class contract manufacturing. We operate one of the largest fleets of advanced polymer 3D printers in Europe. We can design, build and deliver components with extreme precision, repeatability and efficiency – and we can do it fast.

We are already producing critical components for drones operating across all four military domains – air, land, sea and underwater – demonstrating how UK additive manufacturing can underpin the capabilities the DIP envisages.

There is no tooling required. If a new drone design is needed – whether for surveillance, payload, electronic warfare or one‑way missions – parts can be sent to a printer and produced in days.

That agility is essential. As has become clear in Ukraine, drone designs evolve constantly and the ability to adapt at pace is a necessity.

Additive manufacturing also enables forward‑deployed production. Instead of shipping a spare part from the UK to a frontline unit, you have the opportunity to print it where it’s needed. The MOD’s “hub and spoke” vision – with certified production sites and mobile printing units – is exactly the kind of structural shift required to deliver the DIP’s ambitions. It is a vision for the future we can deliver today.

And let’s not forget that the UK is NATO’s lead nation for additive manufacturing adoption. This country has already been recognised within NATO for its global expertise in 3D printing, giving us a strategic advantage few countries possess. It is something we can leverage in the years ahead if the political will is there to do so.

One of the most exciting elements of the DIP is the underwater strand — the Type 92/93 uncrewed underwater platforms, designed to hunt enemy submarines and protect critical undersea infrastructure such as cables. This aligns directly with our work and expertise.

My AMufacture co‑founder, Will Howden, is a former naval architect and Olympic sailor. His background gives us a rare and credible voice on underwater autonomy – a domain where few have deep engineering grounding. The Hybrid Navy concept, with its mix of crewed and uncrewed vessels, is exactly the kind of environment where additive manufacturing can accelerate capability, reduce cost and improve resilience.

The Submarine Delivery Agency is already using 3D printing across the existing fleet, the Dreadnought programme and the next‑generation SSN(A) attack submarine being built jointly with the US and Australia under the under the AUKUS partnership.

This is not theoretical. It is happening now. The DIP gives us the opportunity to scale it.

The peace dividend was squandered because it was treated as a political narrative rather than a national strategy. The defence dividend must be different.

We have the opportunity to build sovereign capability, accelerate innovation, strengthen supply chains and deliver the autonomous systems the UK needs.

We have the capacity. We have the technology. We have the expertise.

We just need the politicians to now – at last – allow us to get on with it.