Submarines, Supply Chains, & Skilled Labor: Inside the Navy’s Advanced Manufacturing Push

Additive Snack · 10 Jul 2025 · 44m · Episode 15

What this episode covers

Chris Holshouser, Deputy Program Director of Maritime Systems at the Blue Forge Alliance, discusses the U.S. Navy’s 'One Plus Two' strategy to accelerate the production of Columbia and Virginia class submarines. He explains how the Navy is leveraging additive manufacturing to bypass the bottlenecks of traditional forging and casting, which suffer from fragmented supply chains and long lead times. The conversation covers the role of the Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AMCOE) in Danville, Virginia, in standardizing qualification processes and the critical need for workforce development to support this industrial base modernization.

Mentioned

Companies
Blue Forge Alliance, Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence, Newport News, General Dynamics Electric Boat, AWS
Products
Columbia class, Virginia class, Ohio class
Also
buildsubmarines.com

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