Indian Army highlights AM role at national symposium
The Indian Army was among those participating in the recent National Additive Manufacturing Symposium 2026, organised by the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM), part of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), at the SCOPE Convention Centre in New Delhi. The symposium brought together representatives from government, the armed forces, academia and industry to discuss the growing role of Additive Manufacturing in strengthening India’s manufacturing ecosystem and enhancing strategic capabilities.
The Indian Army delegation was led by Lt Gen Rajiv Kumar Sahni, Director General of the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (DG EME) and included Maj Gen Shivendra Kumar Bhattacharya and Maj Gen P S Bindra. They were joined by Dr Shibu John, CEO and Founder of 3D Graphy, and Dr Shamsher Singh from IIT Delhi, who participated in the panel discussion on AM for defence applications.
During Lt Gen Rajiv Kumar Sahni’s inaugural address, he highlighted the potential of Additive Manufacturing to support product and technology upgrades in operational environments, the emergence of the ‘Drone Tsunami,’ underscoring the need for agile and responsive manufacturing capabilities to support rapid prototyping, upgrades, and sustainment of unmanned systems through AM technologies.
He also emphasised that AM has evolved from a rapid prototyping tool into a mature manufacturing capability that can transform logistics, sustainment and equipment modernisation in military environments. The address also underscored ongoing initiatives within the Indian Army to integrate polymer and metal AM capabilities, develop digital design ecosystems, and strengthen collaboration with national institutions and industry partners to accelerate adoption of this technology.
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The Indian Army also participated in a focused panel discussion on “AM for Strategic Autonomy and Enhanced Combat Force Regeneration: Smart Manufacturing for Defence Applications”, where the speakers deliberated on several key aspects related to the application of AM in defence.
The discussions highlighted the concept of smart manufacturing in defence, emphasising integration of AM with simulation-driven design, digital twin frameworks, predictive maintenance systems, and data-enabled decision tools to improve operational effectiveness and sustainment capability.
The panel also examined the scalability and disruptive potential of AM, particularly its ability to decentralise production, enable forward-area manufacturing, compress supply chains and reshape lifecycle sustainment models for military platforms.
Speakers discussed the evolving role of AM within defence, outlining the roadmap for future capability development while aligning it with national indigenisation and self-reliance objectives.
Discussions further addressed key challenges and limitations, including material qualification, certification protocols, interoperability requirements and cyber-physical security concerns, while stressing the importance of structured collaboration between the military, academia and industry.
The academic perspective focused on quality assurance and reliability in AM, covering standardisation frameworks, non-destructive evaluation, in-situ monitoring and the integration of simulation and digital twin technologies to ensure robust and quality-certified outputs.
