Executive Summary

The Army has fielded additive manufacturing equipment at forward locations. What it has not fielded is a coherent framework for moving engineering data from the industrial base to those printers — a capability gap that renders fielded equipment inert for all but the simplest tasks. This paper examines the digital thread from engineering data package to field printer, the organizations that must own each segment, and the doctrinal and regulatory barriers that currently prevent the system from functioning as designed.