3D printing will change how wars are fought, foreign policy conducted, experts say
Evolving technology expected to reshape way wars are fought, foreign policy conducted and where and how products are made, experts say
3D printing will revolutionise war and foreign policy, say experts, not only by making possible incredible new designs but by turning the defence industry - and possibly the entire global economy - on its head.
For many, 3D printing still looks like a gimmick, used for printing plastic figurines and not much else. But with key patents running out this year, new printers that use metal, wood and fabric are set to become much more widely available - putting the engineering world on the cusp of major historical change.
The billion-dollar defence industry is at the front edge of this innovation, with the US military already investing heavily in efforts to print uniforms, synthetic skin to treat battle wounds, and even food, said Alex Chausovsky, an analyst at IHS Technology.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have already invented "4D printing" - creating materials that change when they come into contact with elements such as water.
One day, that could mean things such as printed uniforms that change colour depending on their environment.
In the real world, the baby steps are already being taken. Late last year, British defence firm BAE Systems put the first printed metal part in a Tornado jet fighter. The company recently put out an animated video showing where they think such humble beginnings could one day lead the world to. It imagined a plane printing another plane inside itself and then launching it from its undercarriage.
"It's long term, but it's certainly our end goal to manufacture an aerial vehicle in its entirety using 3D printing technology," said Matt Stevens, who heads BAE's 3D printing division.
But the real revolution of 3D printing is less about the things you can make and more about where you make them.
Being able to take printers to a war zone promises a radical shake-up of combat and the defence industry, says Peter W. Singer, who is an expert in future warfare at the New America Foundation in Washington.
"Defence contractors want to sell you an item but also want to own the supply chain for 50 years," he says. "But now you'll have soldiers in an austere outpost in somewhere like Afghanistan who can pull down the software for a spare part, tweak the design and print it out."
This could lead militaries to cut out private defence companies altogether. And by combining 3D printing with assembly-line robotics, those that remain will be enormously streamlined.
That sort of disruption carries huge political implications in the United States where defence firms are purposefully spread around the country and support millions of jobs.
3D printing could even change foreign policy, for instance by undermining sanctions, Singer points out. "The US has sanctioned everything from fighter jet spare parts to oil equipment. 3D printing could turn sanctions - which have been a crucial part of foreign policy for a generation or more - into an antiquated notion," he says.
Then there are the scarier prospects that come with reducing barriers to making arms.
"Think of master bomb makers in the Middle East making new designs that look like everyday products or a lone wolf operator printing a plastic gun he can get past security at the White House," says Chausovsky.
But all of that may pale in comparison to the security risks that 3D printing could trigger by revolutionising economies.
If anyone can print retail goods, economies that rely on cheap factory labour to make clothes, toys and other products may find themselves in deep trouble - with all the security consequences that go with that.
"If you want to know where the big threat of 3D printing is, think about how reliant China is on its low-cost merchandising sector," says Chausovsky.
The full implications are still hard to imagine.
"We're not just improving things - we're re-writing the rule book," says Stevens.
2015 SET TO BE A YEAR OF DISCOVERY
From solar system exploration to new adventures in particle physics to the possible defeat of a microscopic foe, here are some of what promise to be the biggest science stories of 2015.
After a nine-year journey across nearly 3 billion miles of the solar system, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft and its high-definition cameras are closing in on Pluto. A suite of instruments will start taking scientific measurements on January 15. The closest approach, when the spacecraft gets within 7,700 miles from the planet, is scheduled for July.
Could this be the year of the AIDS vaccine?
Microbiologists say that new insights into the structure of HIV's protein spikes - the weapons the virus uses to enter host cells - have raised hopes for a vaccine. If they are right, it would be a major victory against the virus that causes Aids.
The Large Hadron Collider, the largest and fastest particle accelerator in the world, is set to start up again in March after a two-year break. When it is turned on, the two beams of protons that fly around its 27km loop at close to the speed of light will collide with nearly double the energy of the previous run. In 2012, physicists used the massive machine to find the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that is key to understanding why there is mass in the universe. The achievement was honoured with a Nobel Prize. Scientists are not sure what they will find this time around, but some possibilities include particles associated with dark energy and dark matter.
An encounter with a very big asteroid
In March, Nasa's Dawn spacecraft is set to rendezvous with Ceres, the largest member of the asteroid belt. Ceres is Dawn's second stop; its first was Vesta, which the spacecraft circled from July 2011 to September 2012. While Ceres and Vesta are both enormous asteroids, they're actually very different. Vesta, the second-biggest asteroid in the belt, is elliptical and very dry, while Ceres is spherical and may harbour a subsurface ocean. Both of these "protoplanets" could shed light on the early solar system's history.
More comet science, courtesy of Rosetta
The world watched breathlessly last year as the European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter caught up with a comet and, for the first time ever, gently dropped a lander onto its surface. The lander, Philae, has been silent since November 14. But the mission isn't over yet. Scientists say Philae could turn back on as the comet gets closer to the sun, recharging its solar-powered batteries. If so, it may send more data back to scientists on earth.
Tribune News Service
