Snowbird's SAMM Tech shifts from USS Essex to shore in RIMPAC 2026 distributed manufacturing drill

Ship to Shore in a Single Exercise

Snowbird Technologies' SAMM Tech platform supported the RIMPAC 2026 drill from both onshore and offshore locations, transitioning from operations aboard USS Essex to Leader's Field at Schofield Barracks mid-exercise. The move is the point of the story: a manufacturing cell that can work at sea and then re-establish itself in an expeditionary field position without losing the thread of the mission.

SAMM Tech integrates metal additive manufacturing, polymer additive manufacturing, CNC machining, and other digital engineering tools within a patented, ruggedised, and containerised platform. That combination matters for engineers watching the distributed-manufacturing space — it is not a single-process machine but a self-contained production unit designed to travel.

What It Built, and How

During the Naval Postgraduate School's Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) distributed manufacturing experiment, which ran throughout RIMPAC 2026, the system produced metal components using Meltio laser-wire Directed Energy Deposition (DED) technology. SAMM Tech was used to additively manufacture mission-critical components closer to the point of need — the core promise of expeditionary manufacturing, demonstrated rather than just discussed.

Karl Wojtkun, Vice President of Business Development at Snowbird Technologies, framed the deployment as a proof of concept for the wider doctrine:

"SAMM Tech was designed to provide advanced manufacturing wherever the mission requires. Moving directly from shipboard operations aboard USS Essex to expeditionary field operations at Schofield Barracks demonstrates the flexibility and resilience of distributed manufacturing. The ability to respond to digital part requests across the exercise network represents another step toward delivering manufacturing capability directly to the tactical edge."

Wrapping Up the Drill

Advanced manufacturing operations concluded on July 17, 2026. The significance here is less about any single part and more about the operational pattern: digital part requests flowing across an exercise network, answered by a containerised system that had already proven itself aboard ship.