Under threat of air strikes, US looks to bolster base infrastructure with 3D printing

With many U.S. bases in the Middle East damaged by Iranian bombardment, the U.S. Air Force wants to develop mobile 3D concrete printers to erect buildings quickly.

“Put bluntly, the Air Force has spent decades building exquisite kill chains while too often housing the airmen who sustain them in tents, trailers, and flat-walled structures that were never designed for the threat environment now arriving overhead,” admitted the Air Force’s Small Business Innovation Research solicitation, which will close in January 2027.

Concrete printing, in which printers deposit layers of material to form structures, is gaining traction in commercial construction. The Air Force already used 3D printing to rebuild hurricane-damaged Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, in 2023, while a Maryland Air National Guard civil engineer squadron is developing its own mobile concrete printer.

But the new SBIR, which is a direct-to-Phase II project, suggests the Air Force wants 3D construction capability imminently. The goal is to enable “military engineers to rapidly print protective structures using automated or semi-automated construction workflows, reduced skilled labor, and locally available cementitious materials where feasible,” the Air Force said.

While 3D concrete printers exist, the Air Force is concerned that the technology is not yet ready to build structures that can survive bombardment by missiles and drones. Hundreds of U.S. military buildings across eight Middle Eastern countries were damaged by Iranian attacks, according to a September 2026 report by the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General.

The problem is that “the existing state of the art has not yet fully addressed the combined problem that matters most for combat survivability: printable expeditionary materials, field-executable operator workflows, and structure geometry deliberately optimized to mitigate blast-wave behavior and fragmentation effects,” said the SBIR.

The project will evaluate cement-like materials for qualities such as strength, adhesion and the availability of local components. It will develop new construction geometries “that improve survivability beyond conventional flat-wall construction, including shapes intended to reduce blast reflection, limit pressure amplification, interrupt fragmentation paths, and improve internal occupant protection.”

Ultimately, the Air Force wants a mobile concrete printer that can quickly and consistently erect structures while being operated “in austere conditions by lightly trained military personnel.”

The Air Force foresees “substantial” dual-use applications for the mobile concrete printers, such as critical infrastructure and humanitarian relief. However, the SBIR also notes that commercialization will likely require numerous approvals in areas such as building codes.

The aim is to “transition the capability from ‘we can print something interesting’ to ‘a civil engineer unit can deploy, set up, print, inspect, and use protective infrastructure fast enough to matter,'” the service said.