America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) announced two new project calls worth over $35M. Both are funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD ManTech).
The 2026 Department of Defense (DoD) Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Challenge, released in cooperation with our fellow Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MII), focuses on advancing additive manufacturing (AM) and related technologies to support defense manufacturing modernization. Typical awards will range from $10M to $15M. Larger concepts up to $25M will be considered with appropriate justification.
The project targets AM and advanced manufacturing challenges across the OIB, including digital operations technology, AI robotic process planning, in-situ quality checks, reducing operation exposure to hazards, lowering operational costs, pilot lines for emerging military products, and mobile/large surface automation. Addressing these technological gaps is crucial to national security, ensuring a robust and responsive Defense Industrial Base (DIB) capable of meeting the DoD’s evolving needs.