From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Department of Defense 3D Printing Description: Audio Interview by GAO staff with Zina Merritt, Director, Defense Capabilities and Management Related GAO Work: GAO-16-56: Defense Additive Manufacturing: DOD Needs to Systematically Track Department-wide 3D Printing Efforts Released: October 2015 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's October 2015. Additive manufacturing, using 3D printing technology to make things, could potentially improve aspects of the Department of Defense's mission and operations. A team led by Zina Merritt, a director in GAO's Defense Capabilities and Management team, recently reviewed DOD's use of additive manufacturing and its benefits and constraints. GAO's Jacques Arsenault sat down with Zina to discuss what they found. [Jacques Arsenault: ] Can you give me a sense of what we mean when we're talking about 3D printing? [ Zina Merritt: ] Sure. Additive manufacturing, also referred to as 3D printing, is simply a process that uses a layer by layer technology from a digital model to produce three-dimensional objects, and is different than subtractive manufacturing, because subtractive manufacturing usually uses a drilling or a milling process, where it takes away materials to create the object, and with 3D printing, they use materials such as metal powders, as well as plastics, in order to create objects. [Jacques Arsenault: ] And your report looked specifically at the Department of Defense. And so, can you tell me about a few of the ways that DOD or the military services are using this type of manufacturing now? [ Zina Merritt: ] Sure. The media has portrayed DOD as doing everything from printing food to printing clothing, to also printing hearts for humans. That's not quite the case yet, but right now, I'll give you a few examples of what they're actually doing. In one particular case, there was an Army unit that was deployed, and that unit was having some failures with one of their vehicles. It's known as the mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, or MRAP. And that particular vehicle, the valves were exposed on the tires, so every time they hit a rock or rough terrain, they were having flat tires, or losing tire pressure. So what DOD did, they were able, in the field, to prototype a new design for a valve cover, which they were able to actually get conventionally manufactured within a week or so, rather than taking a long time on the traditional conventional methods, and the contracting for it, and all that, which could have taken months to do. In another example, they're also using it to prototype air crew masks. And these masks, DOD officials told us that ordinarily it would have cost up to $50,000 and about six months to actually prototype it. In this particular case, they were actually able to prototype it for less than $10,000 and it only took a few weeks. On the medical side, within DOD, officials at the Walter Reed National Military Hospital Center told us that they've been using the technology since 2003. They've actually produced thousands of medical models, about 300 cranial plates, that they've actually used some of those to implant into servicemen and others, and also they've been producing prosthetics and other applications. [Jacques Arsenault: ] You talked about some of the benefits that the DOD and the military can get from 3D printing. What are some of the challenges of using this technology for defense needs? [ Zina Merritt: ] Sure. Of course, with every evolving technology there will be challenges. One of the key challenges for DOD is the fact that any part created has to meet certain military specifications and criteria. For example, an aircraft part, where commercial industry may be able to create something for application in an engine, and adapt it very quickly, the military, because its aircraft fly under very harsh conditions on missions, it is important that the certification of the safety and worthiness be done properly before such parts are actually used for application. [Jacques Arsenault: ] So it sounds like there are a lot of ways that DOD is and can use 3D printing. One thing that your report mentioned is a need for better coordination and tracking of these efforts. Can you tell me a little more about that? [ Zina Merritt: ] Yes. The very reason why we conducted this study was because Congress wanted more information on what DOD was actually doing, how many different types of applications they had going at any given time, they wanted to know the cost of resource investment in these applications, and also who within DOD is responsible for the oversight of them. When we started our work, we asked, “does anyone in DOD have like a central repository of all the efforts that are being done by the military components?” The answer was no. No one had that. So we had to go out to the individual components, and try to catalogue this, and get best guess estimates as to how much this was costing. They are doing some coordination of the efforts within the department. They will have meetings where they talk about what they're doing on a very ad hoc basis, in a way, and we said, based on good practices and principles that someone should have oversight, given the amounts of money involved here, and the potential for change in the DOD supply system that it has. [Jacques: ] And finally, for the military, and for the American people, what would you say is the bottom line of this report? [ Zina Merritt: ] The bottom line is that additive manufacturing is still in its infancy. They have a long ways to go. And it's going to take years, even decades, for them to get the level of confidence needed in order to have it go hand-in-hand with conventional manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is intended to be a complement, and not a replacement, for your conventional or traditional manufacturing. In the case of DOD, a lot of their efforts are going into research and development of how they can use it in the future. But they have a very long ways to go. 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