Development of a maritime defence framework to identify parts suitable for additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing offers major advantages for defence, including shorter lead times and stronger supply chain resilience, but adoption has been limited because industry lacks a clear demand signal to support technology investment decisions.

Austal in partnership with Curtin University will address that gap by developing a maritime defence framework to catalogue part suitability across four key areas: operational, commercial, legal and technical. The project brings together industry experience, research capability and real-world vessel and supply chain data to create a more structured and proactive approach to additive manufacturing adoption. The framework will help move decision-making away from reactive, one-off responses to supply disruptions and toward earlier, evidence-based planning.

For industry, this means clearer pathways for investment, faster assessment of part catalogues at scale and stronger confidence in where additive manufacturing can deliver value. More broadly, the project is expected to support sovereign defence capability, workforce upskilling and wider uptake of advanced manufacturing across Australia’s maritime and industrial sectors.