America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining has launched its latest project call, worth $1.7 million, aimed at fostering qualified additive manufacturing efforts to scale Defense Industrial Base capabilities.
The open project call, Joint Additive Qualification for Sustainment – Supplier Qualification (JAQS-SQ) – Group 1, is being funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech). A total of five awards are expected to be announced by November 10th 2025. Per a press release, America Makes says the project is designed to accelerate the integration of non-traditional suppliers by training and supporting additive manufacturers to meet required process control documents (PCDs) for qualified additive manufacturing production. It claims a lack of robust training and audit programs adhering to established standards and restrictive part-by-part qualification processes have undermined government confidence in AM. Therefore, the project seeks to improve alignment with government acquisition requirements through comprehensive training and audit programs focused on efficient and qualified production for government needs.
“Additive manufacturing is at a turning point. The time for talking is over – we need to drive standardisation and qualification now to unlock real growth, especially for the Department of Defense,” said Ben DiMarco, Technology Transition Director at America Makes. “As an Institute, we are taking action through efforts like the JAQS-SQ program – rallying industry leaders to accelerate supplier qualification, strengthen supply chain trust, and ensure the defence industrial base is mission-ready.”
“JAQS-SQ moves us significantly closer to rapidly scaling the defense industrial base by aligning joint expertise in performance quality standards with hands-on training and audit-backed assurance,” said Elisa Peters, Senior Program Manager, Advanced Manufacturing Integration OSD ManTech. “Through this program, we’re poised to dramatically boost additive manufacturing readiness and production capacity, aiming for a tenfold increase by 2027.”
