YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining on Monday announced the winners of the 2026 Department of War Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge, with awards up to $15 million. 

The challenge is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office.

Released in cooperation with fellow Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, the effort focuses on advancing additive manufacturing and related technologies to support defense manufacturing modernization, a news release states.

The project targets additive manufacturing and advanced manufacturing challenges across the organic industrial base, including digital operations technology, AI robotic process planning, in-situ quality checks, reducing operational exposure to hazards, lowering operational costs, pilot lines for emerging military products and mobile/large surface automation.

“The defense industrial base must continuously meet emerging challenges, and advanced manufacturing is helping make that possible,” said John Wilczynski, executive director of America Makes. “For nearly 15 years, the institute has brought together leaders from industry, government and academia to accelerate the adoption of innovative manufacturing technologies that strengthen U.S. competitiveness, resiliency and national security. This challenge builds on that foundation by accelerating the transition of those proven technologies into the organic industrial base, where they can improve day-to-day production operations and deliver measurable gains in cost, throughput, quality and supply chain resilience. By bridging innovation with implementation, we are helping ensure advanced manufacturing capabilities can scale across the industrial base.”

Here are the winners and project titles:

  • Honeywell: Rapid Production of Sand Castings via Additive Manufacturing Technology.
  • HRL Laboratories LLC: Rapid Qualification of Additive Parts.
  • Machina Labs: Edge Factories for Production of Low-Cost Weapon Systems.
  • Accenture Federal Services LLC: Additive Manufacturing Digital Twin & Operations Simulation.
  • Stratasys Inc.: In-Situ Monitoring for Fused Deposition Modeling.
  • REM Surface Engineering LLC: Advanced Chemical/Chemical Mechanical Polishing Technologies for Additively Manufactured Components within the DoW OIB.