America’s Arsenal Gets a High-Tech Upgrade: 3D-Printed Cruise Missiles Slash Costs and Speed Up Production
California-based Divergent Technologies is revolutionizing defense manufacturing with the world’s first 3D-printed cruise missile.
Using AI-driven design and industrial additive manufacturing, the company can produce complex missile airframes faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, cutting expenses by up to 90 percent and shrinking design-to-production timelines from a year or more down to just weeks.
The same high-performance 3D printers churning out parts for supercars are now building munitions for top defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and RTX. In an exclusive facility tour in Torrance, the process looks deceptively simple:
massive printers stack layers of advanced metals into precision structures, then robotic assembly takes over. Each printer can output hundreds of missile airframes annually, all made right here in the USA.
This breakthrough comes at a critical time. With global threats rising and legacy production lines struggling to keep up, Divergent’s technology promises to flood the battlefield with affordable, adaptable weapons without breaking the bank or waiting on slow bureaucracies.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth toured the plant as part of his push to rebuild America’s industrial edge, emphasizing speed, scale, and competition to equip our warriors properly.