Published: April 22, 2026

The CREC team attended the 2026 Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC) to better understand emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the defense industrial base (DIB). Here are our takeaways from the event.

✓ Additive manufacturing is scaling quickly.
It is being used to address production bottlenecks, shorten iteration cycles, and reduce labor needs—often in combination with AI and robotics.

✓ A more flexible production model is emerging.
The concept of “factory-as-a-service” is gaining traction, where production systems can manufacture different products without retooling. This model points toward more software-enabled, adaptable production systems.

✓ Manufacturing readiness—not technology—is often the bottleneck.
Sessions highlighted how Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRLs) are used to assess whether systems can scale. The biggest gap remains the transition from prototyping to production (MRL 4–5), where designs, materials, or processes fail to translate into manufacturable outcomes.

✓ Speed is improving, but tradeoffs remain.
Acquisition reforms are pushing faster timelines, with expectations to prototype or field systems within five years. In practice, programs still face choices between delaying, proceeding at risk, or delivering incomplete systems and integrating components later.

✓ Building surge readiness and supply chain resilience is a national security priority.
There is renewed focus on the ability to rapidly scale production in response to demand shocks, with examples ranging from PPE production during COVID to munitions scaling. Pursuing commercial and dual-use capabilities is increasingly seen as an alternative to traditional procurement approaches. Initiatives such as the Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network are examples of this approach gaining traction.

✓ Demand signals drive investment.
Industry is willing to invest through early stages, but scaling production depends on clear, sustained demand. Unpredictable government demand continues to limit private-sector investment in technology and workforce.

✓ Workforce challenges are systemic and local.
Workforce was consistently cited as a top constraint. Needs are highly regional, and many roles require technical skills rather than four-year degrees. Competency frameworks show that many skills are shared across technologies, creating opportunities for more flexible training models.

✓ Small manufacturers face the greatest barriers.
Small and mid-sized manufacturers are often the bottleneck but lack the resources to meet requirements like MRL assessments or cybersecurity compliance, limiting their ability to participate fully in the DIB.

✓ Sustainability is an open question.
Recent federal funding is viewed as a major opportunity to modernize the DIB, but there is concern about whether progress can be sustained without long-term follow-on investment.

Bottom Line 

The conference reinforced that scaling defense manufacturing depends less on new technologies and more on aligning production readiness, workforce capacity, and demand signals.