Discover how 3YOURMIND validated the digital backbone of allied logistics at AM Village 2026.
AM Village is a unique, highly specialized multinational capability workshop organized by the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the member nations of the EDA Category B Project "AM for Logistic Support." Now in its third iteration—following successful foundational exercises in 2023 and 2024—the 2026 workshop was hosted by the Spanish Air Force in March at the Albacete-Los Llanos Air Base.
In addition to demonstrating the scaling maturity of European military AM capabilities, AM Village 2026 signified a deepening operational synergy between the European Union and NATO, proving that collaborative frameworks are essential to securing the modern digital supply chain. Driven by the mandates of the 2023 EU-NATO Joint Declaration, this year’s exercise marked a significant milestone: NATO was formally invited to participate in the EU’s flagship additive manufacturing workshop, translating high-level policy into direct, theater-level defense interoperability.
A primary breakthrough of the exercise was the collaborative engagement between the EDA and the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). Both bodies actively explored shared interests in the RAPID-e repository, uncovering vast potential for a unified, secure digital backbone across allied nations.
To translate this high-level geopolitical alignment into proven technical reality, the exercise relied on the contributions and expertise of European military AM experts, researchers, academics, and companies from defense and AM industries. 3YOURMIND is proud to have been selected as one of the 160+ private industry companies invited to attend the five-day event. 3YOURMIND’s objective was to demonstrate its solution as an indispensable digital backbone for allied forces. Specifically, it addressed concerns to replace vulnerable supply chains with rapid, decentralized, and secure digital production exactly at the point of need.
Testing the Tech in the Field
During the five-day event, the 3YOURMIND team deployed a local network of servers, workstations, and routers to interface with nine different industrial 3D printers (including EOS, Ultimaker, and Cosmyx machines) across the military base.
The team successfully executed three critical technical breakthroughs that are changing the face of military logistics:
- Offline Sync for Deployed Units: In collaboration with the Royal Dutch Navy, 3YOURMIND demonstrated how isolated units can access a validated digital inventory from a local offline server to print parts, automatically syncing quality data back to central command the moment connectivity is restored — improving fleet-wide readiness.
- True Allied Interoperability (RAPiD-e): In a historic milestone, the Dutch Ministry of Defence requested a validated digital asset from the Finnish Defence Forces. The part was securely transferred and printed locally at a Dutch micro-factory without a single USB drive or email—proving that data sharing can successfully replace physical shipping lanes.
- Secure Push-to-Print: Most forward operating units suffer from a major disconnect: valuable 3D printing recipes are either trapped on local drives or exposed via insecure flash drives. This causes shifting part quality and discourages OEMs from sharing their assets. 3YOURMIND leveraged a decade of secure machine connectivity to lock qualified print recipes centrally and push them directly to remote hardware over-the-air. This removes human error for field operators and delivers the precise digital traceability OEMs demand.
What’s Next for Digital Manufacturing?
The success at AM Village 2026 is just the beginning. As 3YOURMIND wraps up additional military exercises—including NATO’s CWIX and the massive RIMPAC 2026 exercise in Hawaii—the focus is rapidly shifting toward scaling these distributed manufacturing capabilities across dozens of global production sites.
Get the Full Intel
How exactly did the team bridge the gap between different national inventories? What did the network architecture look like on the ground? And how are these breakthrough workflows paving the way for true sovereign manufacturing capabilities?
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