What is described by Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) as the largest metal component it has ever additively manufactured (AM), was referred to months earlier as the ‘bits’ delivered by NP Aerospace for a Mastiff patrol vehicle via the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Project TAMPA.
Major General Phil Prosser, Director Joint Support in Defence Support of the British Army, was by no means being dismissive of what DMC and NP Aerospace had achieved with the additive manufacture of a 90kg suspension and differential carrier when he appeared on the Additive Insight podcast 12 months ago. But as the UK’s next Chief of Defence Logistics and Support, his lens is long and aperture wide.
What Prosser saw before him is just one part in a vast supply chain of components, systems and vehicles. What DMC and NP saw was a battle that took months to win. A battle that, if the MOD is to “keep the country safe and help it prosper”, they feel had to be won.
By now, the MOD sees AM as a matter of national security. And though the suspension and differential carrier is just one part, the success of this project represents a significant stride towards the integration of AM throughout its supply chain.
