Ever since David introduced the sling to Goliath, military innovators have been looking for the next best way to the best the next enemy on the battlefield. Now, 3DP’s new capability to DIY/DIT (Do-It-Together) print end-use metallic products (i.e., mission-customized offensive weapons or defensive systems) means the armory can move directly to a conflict’s leading edge or into asymmetric-war hotspots…
Australian Army strategists are planning to deploy 3DP to the battlefield and in-action 3D-print DIY/DITD, mission-customized, offensive weapons & defensive systems, such as these reconnaissance drones.
Defense establishments worldwide are in the business of NOT being the next Goliath.
Still, digital creativity in the shape of 3D printing—no respecter of national flags or borders or foreign policy—stands ready to present the game-changer’s lighter, smaller, cheaper, faster and better weapon to every David. Or, more-clever Goliath!
Many experts now think 3DP—bits to atoms (atoms that could be shaped like bullets or other deadly devices)—is uniquely susceptible to making military makeovers. (In the U.S., the consternation created by the 3D printed gun has already affected—perhaps further warped, if that’s possible—public policy in the age of the National Rifle Association “army” of lobbyist and advocates.)
Now, the Australian Army—or at least an unofficial spokesperson who happens to be a 3DP-knowledgeable officer in that military establishment—has revealed some innovative thinking about battlefield uses of 3DP. Australian Lieutenant Jacob Choi made a number of provocative comments—in a private capacity—at a 3D printing conference (another of the ubiquitous “Inside 3D Printing Expo & Conferences”) in Melbourne.
From Plastic Soldiers To Soldiers’ (Combat) Plastic: Defense strategists plan to remove vulnerable supply lines from the battlefield equation with “Battlefield Armory” innovations to empower combat units to resupply themselves with mission-critical war materiel via in-action 3DP.
Lt. Choi’s speculated not just on the military technology breakthroughs many see stemming from 3DP but also on how battlefield and logistics scenarios would be radically disrupted strategically and tactically. If war materiel can be created at or near the locus of conflict, then the age-old supply chain—key to so many classic military victories or defeats—will have many fewer impeding logistical “links.”
Not only compressed and quickened arms and armament distribution: think bespoke bullets! If you need a different kind of anti-tank round or shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile than the ones at hand, download the file from your “digital arsenal” in the Cloud and print the “armor stopper” or “helicopter downer” that will turn the battle.
Lt. Choi envisioned logistics warriors that would be just as important as foot soldiers on the 3DP-modulated battlefield. This “logi-troops” might be organized into squads, platoons and companies—just like their weapon-firing brothers—and embedded with tactical battalions. The term “APC”—Armored Personal Carrier—may be revived from the Vietnam War with a new meaning: Armored Printer Carrier!
The Lieutenant also speculated that 4DP weapons will replace or enhance the 3DP: “The next step is 4D printers which are in the development phase.” Arms created with 4D printing would enable battlefield-reactive weapons that would modify themselves in response to “programmed-in” tactical conditions.
The Australian Army Icon: Victorian “look” belies 21st C. innovative attitudes.
Lt. Choi: “We should be able to have a 4D printed product put, for instance, in an open field and it should be able to develop by itself into an assembled structure,” he said.
Lieutenant Choi also saw the impact of 4D changing the concept of how wars—or insurgencies—might be waged. He said the targeted nature of 4D weapons “solved” some of the moral questions that exist with more indiscriminate weaponry—such as IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] currently in use. “So instead of having to have a remote control or any sort of pressure plate-initiated blast, you’re talking about a system that is very discriminative,” he said.
The Defence Force officer said he would “like to see the Australian Army utilizing the full benefits of 3D printing by 2020.”
And, you thought 3D printing might just create the next platoon of plastic soldiers for your eight-year-old…
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