AL3 signs biggest US defence order - $9.9M from a $23BN Huntington Ingalls Industries subsidiary
Our 3D printing Investment AML3D (ASX: AL3) just received a ~$9.9M order for four of its “ARCEMY X” 3D printing systems from Newport News Shipbuilding.
Newport is a division of $23BN HII (Huntington Ingalls Industries) - America’s largest military shipbuilder, and one of the biggest defence contractors in the US…
Huntington across all their business’ build aircraft carriers, submarines and destroyers for the US navy - just take a look at their front page:
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After today’s order, the total number of AL3’s ARCEMY X systems Newport will have increases to six.
Back in October, AL3 announced a $4.5M sale to Newport for two systems - at the time that was the single biggest US Defence sale AL3 had made.
Today’s order doubles that and is for a total of four systems…
(source)
For us, the repeat order from the same customer (especially someone like a HII) is a strong signal the customer base is liking what AL3 offers.
And hopefully, adoption by a giant contractor also opens the door to other orders from other manufacturers in the US defence space.
Just as the US is pouring money into naval shipbuilding.
We saw the following a few weeks ago:
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The US FY2026 defence budget allocated US$27.2BN for Navy shipbuilding - covering 17 new ships including fast attack submarines and medium landing ships.
Plus another US$1.5BN for maritime industrial base upgrades.
At the same time, the US Department of War's FY2026 budget allocated US$3.3BN for additive manufacturing. (source)
And remember, the Big Beautiful Bill that passed into law last year specifically earmarked US$450M for additive manufacturing in shipbuilding. (source - page 110)
The US Navy has called metallic additive manufacturing its “Manhattan Project" and has told parts suppliers to either adopt 3D printing or get left behind.
(source)
AL3 is right in the middle of all of this.
AL3 has a Master Licensing Agreement with Blue Forge Alliance (the US Navy intermediary that received a US$951M DoD contract), a Letter of Intent from the US Navy forecasting demand for 100 additive manufacturing systems across the Marine Industrial Base, and now six systems installed at the largest US military shipyard.
(source: US Navy Letter of Intent to AL3)
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One of the main reasons for us Investing in AL3 was for the company's expansion into the US market.
Since we first Invested, AL3 has shifted its business to predominantly sell into the US and raised $30M to build (and then double capacity) a manufacturing facility in Ohio.
AL3’s move into the US was before the Trump induced push to reshore manufacturing in the US and now with all of the capital available for companies helping make that a reality, we think AL3 is in a strong position to capture some of those capital flows.
(Fingers crossed we see more deals like today’s from different parts of the US defence industry).
What does AL3 do?
AL3’s technology combines robotics, welding, automation and software.
AL3 tech “3D prints” complex industrial parts for the defence, oil & gas and aerospace industries, and sells these 3D printers to industries looking for on-site custom solutions.
We have been to AL3’s Australian facility in Adelaide to check the systems out and it's genuinely amazing to see these things in motion.
We saw the largest ever custom AL3 ARCEMY 3D printing system ever built, before it was to be shipped off to the USA:
As well as some of what the product software looks like:
To see our full site visit write up read: Our AL3 site visit and what we learnt.
What's next for AL3?
More US Navy system sales 🔄
With 100 systems forecast across the Marine Industrial Base and only a handful deployed so far, the pipeline from HII alone may become substantial. We want to see more orders from the six US naval base companies named in the Navy's LOI. (source)
US facility expansion 🔄
AL3 is investing $12M to expand its Ohio production capabilities which is required to keep up with its growing sales. The additional four systems ordered by Newport News systems will ship from its Ohio US technology center.
UK and European market entry 🔲
AL3's CEO has flagged early-stage demand in their UK and European markets and we think that NATO's 5% GDP defence spending target could create a new wave of opportunity. We want to see a first European sale.
