Northrop Grumman and Fastech Lead $12.4 Million America Makes Metal AM Qualification Program

On October 14, 2026, Nanjixiong learned that America Makes announced on October 13 that Northrop Grumman and Fastech would lead two teams in the $12.4 million MIAMI program, assessing whether metal AM materials can replace conventional alloys in defense components.



MIAMI stands for Maturation of Additive Metals Interchangeability. Teams will select parts and generate data showing additive materials meet or exceed replaced-alloy performance, reducing repeated tests and accelerating qualification. Northrop Grumman partners with Georgia Tech; Fastech partners with Auburn University, Texas A&M University, AML3D and others.

Funding comes through the Department of Defense Office of the Deputy Secretary's IBAS program, as identified in the original article. Together with August awards for Delta Qual 2.0 at $9 million and JAQS-SQ at $10.5 million, US defense AM qualification funding in 2026 approaches $32 million.

Nanjixiong's observation
The bottleneck is moving from producing parts to demonstrating performance, with reusable material data central to progress.

Sources: FilamentFeed; 3D Printing Industry.

AI-translated from an article by Kuaixiong on Nanjixiong, originally published on 2026-10-14. Text and images retain the original source attribution.
Read the original Chinese article