Project TAMPA – Additive Manufacturing as a Service Working Group

In early 2021, the then Chief of Defence Logistics & Support (CDLS) Lt Gen Richard Wardlaw, tasked the Defence Support Transformation & Innovation team (part of Strategic Command, and residing in MoD Abbey Wood) to test the feasibility of pursuing ‘Additive Manufacturing (AM) as a Service’ across the Front Line Commands (FLCs) i.e. Army, Navy, Maritime & Space. This tasking included:

1. Examining the choices/processes/technologies available in the marketplace in respect of who should produce components in the context of a centralised strategic base capability, i.e. could a designated OEM provide bespoke AM services to UK MOD on an ‘as required’ basis.
2. Establish the degree to which the model could be extended into the MOD Supply Chain.

Subsequently, and as briefed at DSEI in Aug 21, CDLS gave notice of the intention to accelerate AM as a key component of the Defence Supply Chain.

A commercial framework has now been created in order to accelerate the maturity of Advanced Manufacturing technologies (in particular Additive Manufacturing or 3D printing) to assist in getting them to the point where the intention is for Industry to produce parts for the Defence Inventory, working with DE&S Delivery Teams and FLC’s, and fitted to In-Service platforms, for which the print files are transmissible, and IPR and certification has been addressed. This ‘challenge’ was launched by CDLS’ team in April 2022, providing industry with the opportunity to submit proposals on how they could deliver the required ‘AM as a service’ offering (now called Project TAMPA).

Concurrently, a series of co-chaired Working Groups are active, with membership from a wide range of interested & relevant industry & MoD stakeholders, to ensure that the certification, IPR, inventory management and ‘Digital Thread’ aspects of delivering AM to the MoD as a standard offering are suitably addressed. These working groups (held virtually every 2-3 months and in person at volunteered premises every quarter) provide the opportunity for the MoD, industry, research and academic AM community to network and learn from each other, as well as formulate a roadmap for ‘AM as a service’ implementation within UK Defence.

The current MoD senior sponsor for AM in Defence is Director Joint Support.

A selection of documentation relating to the AMaaS challenge / Project TAMPA are provided below. There is also the ability for the AMaaS WGs to share and work on documents on a dedicated secure Kahootz sharepoint site, as provided by Team Defence Information.

The Team Defence Information lead for Project TAMPA is Stu Olden: stu.olden@teamdefence.info.

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