25 apr 2024
Shaping the future of defence procurement
Our additive manufacturing techniques are helping to overcome obsolescence and shape the future of defence procurement.
We’ve been working as part of the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Project Tampa – the first industry accelerator programme focused on the use of additive manufacturing to increase material availability across defence. The project aims to demonstrate the benefits of using additive manufacturing and explore the challenges that prevent it from being scaled within the defence industry.
Since first producing end-use metallic parts for the British Army using additive techniques, we’ve now developed a broad range of parts across a number of military platforms.
Alongside Project Tampa, our Material Availability Services team have been working with Vistory and the Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) on an exciting collaboration to develop secure digital environments to support the growth of additive technology. This was showcased at the Defence Procurement Research Technology Exportability Conference in March 2024, where we demonstrated the remote and secure additive manufacture of a complex transmission gear.
Live from the event, digital information was transmitted through Vistory’s Mainchain, a secure system that instructed an additive manufacturing machine at the DMC to start production. A unique feature of this capability is that from inception to completion no intellectual property or information is transferred via an operator.
The transmission gear that was produced is characteristic of parts currently in demand for legacy UK platforms that have been gifted to Ukraine, and the capability demonstrated is a credible solution to overcome the challenges of keeping such equipment mission ready, whilst still respecting security and assurance, and protecting sensitive information.
During the conference, Jon Morley, Babcock’s Director of Material Availability Services and Industry Co-Chair of Project Tampa, reflected on the progress being made, commenting: “Tampa has done its job; it has instigated this alliance and the capability we are demonstrating is a credible solution to overcome the challenges of handling sensitive information on a global scale. The concept is clearly capable of also supporting our overseas allies, industry peers and partners, our customers and front-line commands, wherever they are and whenever then need us.”
Charlotte Robinson, the MOD’s Co-Chair of Project Tampa and Head of Innovation within Defence Support, added: “This collaboration between Babcock, Vistory and the Digital Manufacturing Centre is a fantastic example of innovation within the defence supply chain; the ability to securely transmit digital print files for remote production whilst protecting the intellectual property rights of the design authority will revolutionise the speed at which we can keep our platforms and equipment available.”
We continue to support the MOD with Project Tampa and pioneer the deployment of digital and additive technologies, including exploring using these techniques in other areas of Babcock. The deployment of these modern digital processes remains key to our evolution of the supply chain to be more modern, diverse and agile, benefitting from the latest technology and innovations. We’re delivering the capability our customers need, available to them wherever, whenever and however they need it.