Last week, drone stocks surged on news that the Trump administration is considering a massive investment in the US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry. Earlier in 2026, the release of the US FY 2027 defense budget request revealed that the Defense Autonomous Working Group (DAWG), a unit launched last year to accelerate adoption of all things drone-related for the DoD, could be in line to receive the largest single-year increase in funding of any defense program in US history.
Meanwhile, in 2025, Ukraine reportedly produced 4 million combat drones, an absurd increase of over a thousandfold from the first year of the Russian invasion. This is not only the largest military drone production capacity possessed by any nation globally; it is more drone production capacity than all of the NATO countries combined.
Even beyond the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, the discourse surrounding the topic has started to catch up to the fact that 3D printing is already an irreplaceable element within the drone supply chain. Yet all indicators seem to be signaling that the story of AM for the drones market has only just begun to be written.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that this market boom is still in the early stages, the situation is expanding and evolving so quickly that it seems virtually impossible to stay up-to-date. That’s why 3DPrint.com and AM Research are presenting UAS Additive Strategies: The Present and Future of Drone Manufacturing, a live webcast that will take place on June 30 from 11 AM to 2:30 PM EST. Register before June 18 to gain access for only $49; after that, the price goes up to $89.
Sponsored by EOS and HP, two of the most important industrial AM OEMs in the UAV space, the webinar features a combination of talks and panel discussions from AM experts across the drone value chain. In addition to a keynote from EOS’s Business Development Manager for Polymer, Dave Krzeminski, and market insights from AM Research’s Scott Dunham and Joris Peels, as well as from myself, panelists include prominent industry professionals such as Steve Fournier from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) and Ian Muceus, CTO of Firestorm Labs.
While I began by talking about government funding and wartime learning on-the-fly, it’s important to keep in mind that public spending and combat mobilization may be the factors most responsible for sustaining the 3D printed drone boom now. However, the broad-sweeping technological and economic structural shifts in play suggest that the private sector hasn’t even scratched the surface concerning the purely commercial civilian applications that should someday be just as vital to driving both UAV production and AM — and the combination of both — in the future.
The landscape is overwhelming, but it’s just going to get more daunting, so there’s no better time to start than right now, and 3DPrint and AM Research are here to simplify the learning curve. Register today!