AM Bottleneck Brief #6: Material Interchangeability Is the Qualification Gate for Defense AM

AM Bottleneck Brief #6 · 17 October 2026

In October 2026, America Makes and NCDMM named two winning teams in the US$12.4 million MIAMI project call. Qualified powder is necessary. It is not sufficient. An AM alloy enters defense and aerospace programs at scale only when shared, pedigreed data shows it meets or exceeds the critical properties of the legacy wrought or cast alloy it replaces.

What changed

MIAMI stands for Maturation Initiative for Additive Metals Interchangeability. It is funded through the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition & Sustainment, via the Industrial Base Policy office (OSW WIRE). (America Makes announcement; NCDMM announcement)

Team 1: Northrop Grumman leads, with Georgia Institute of Technology and Contextualize, LLC. Team 2: Fastech, LLC leads, with Pacific Engineering, Auburn University / National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence, Texas A&M University, Prime Tech Data Management, AML3D and Westmoreland Mechanical Testing & Research. (America Makes)

Teams will select candidate parts, define performance requirements and generate shared, validated data. The stated goal is cross-platform use of AM materials, less redundant testing and faster qualification across the defense industrial base. (America Makes)

The bottleneck

The constraint is material interchangeability under weapon-system requirements. Each program has typically built its own pedigreed data package. That duplicates testing. It keeps AM material substitution a one-off qualification exercise rather than a standard industrial path.

A NASA technical memorandum (March 2026) names traditional qualification and certification approaches as one of the most significant barriers to wider AM use in aviation, citing high cost and long certification timelines. (NASA/TM-20260001729, CM4QC strategy)

Why it matters

Powder capacity (see Brief #5) improves feedstock availability. It does not create interchangeable materials. Without shared substitution data, each new alloy or process still faces platform-by-platform testing.