What MxD’s 2026 Manufacturing Roadmap Reveals About Defense Production

I’ve been watching the defense manufacturing sector wrestle with a problem nobody wants to talk about: America’s casting and forging industry is running on technology from decades ago. The MxD Casting & Forging Digital Fabric roadmap that dropped in spring 2026 isn’t just another industry report. It’s a wake-up call about the dangerous digital lag threatening our industrial base.

For centuries, casting and forging have been the backbone of industrial power. In aerospace and defense, these processes are more than traditional—they’re vital to national security. From jet engine turbines to structural frames of armored vehicles, the integrity of these metal parts is non-negotiable. But right now, many domestic foundries still rely on fragmented technical data in outdated 2D formats, lacking the Industry 4.0 tools necessary to maintain competitive edge.

The Digital Gap Threatening Defense Readiness

MxD, in collaboration with Ernst & Young, conducted an intensive workshop series involving stakeholders from government, academia, and industry. These sessions diagnosed the current state of the casting and forging sector and established a path forward. The findings revealed stark systemic barriers threatening domestic readiness.

The industry is battling high operational costs and a scarcity of government incentives that hamper modernization speed. Most critically, the workshops identified a dangerous lag in digital technology adoption. While other manufacturing sectors have embraced digital twins, data-driven decision-making, and automated process control, much of the casting and forging industry remains stuck in analog operations.

This is where technologies like DDM Systems’ Digital Foundry become strategic. When you can 3D print ceramic shells directly from CAD files and deliver precision castings 10x faster, you’re not just optimizing legacy processes. You’re demonstrating what’s possible when casting goes digital.

The traditional casting workflow is broken for modern defense needs. Converting 2D drawings to digital formats. Capturing tribal knowledge from retiring experts. Implementing sensor-based monitoring during metal pouring. These aren’t nice-to-have improvements. They’re mission-critical capabilities for an industrial base that supports warfighter readiness.

Why Defense Is Prioritizing Casting and Forging Modernization

Metal castings and forgings are ranked alongside microelectronics, batteries, and cutting-edge kinetic weapons as foundational to America’s national defense and economic strength. The U.S. government is prioritizing strengthening this supply chain for immediate and long-term resilience.

The Organic Industrial Base Modernization Accelerated Program (OMAP) operates as a distinct effort for the Department of Defense. The organic industrial base comprises the facilities, depots, and shipyards that produce and repair equipment used by the U.S. armed services. MxD works directly with OIB leaders through OMAP to identify high-impact digitalization opportunities and execute pilot implementations at foundries across the U.S.

MxD partnered with The Ohio State University’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence and Endurance Engineering Inc. to develop sensor-based monitoring systems that capture critical parameters during metal pouring processes. This addresses a fundamental challenge: converting legacy two-dimensional drawings into model-based digital technical data packages while preserving the knowledge of a retiring expert workforce.

The roadmap provides a unified strategy emphasizing data-driven readiness and integration of advanced technologies across the casting and forging lifecycle: design, production, and supply chain.

Digital Manufacturing Technologies Transforming Foundry Operations

MxD is on track to complete over 200 digitalization projects by the end of 2026. They’ve engaged with 24 organic industrial base facilities over the past two years, delivering measurable results in reduced downtime and improved efficiency.

The technologies being deployed aren’t theoretical. Digital twins enable real-time process optimization. AI-powered inspection systems identify defects faster and more accurately than manual inspection. Sensor networks capture production data that was previously lost, enabling continuous improvement and predictive maintenance.

At DDM Systems, our 90% reduction in scrap and defects validates this approach. When you eliminate seven of twelve traditional casting steps through ceramic 3D printing and digital process control, you remove seven opportunities for defects to compound. Every step eliminated is risk reduced, timeline compressed, and cost removed.

The pattern across the industry is clear: Digital manufacturing technologies reduce waste, improve quality, accelerate delivery, and capture knowledge that would otherwise be lost. Foundries implementing these capabilities now are building advantages that compound over time—and ensuring they can meet defense requirements for decades to come.

The Knowledge Transfer Crisis Nobody’s Solving

Here’s the problem keeping defense program managers up at night: The foundry workers who understand how to pour complex alloys, read subtle mold defects, and troubleshoot casting problems are retiring. Their knowledge exists in their heads, not in documentation systems.

The MxD roadmap addresses this directly. Converting tribal knowledge into digital systems isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about preserving critical manufacturing capability. When a master foundryman retires, decades of experience walk out the door. Unless that knowledge has been captured in digital formats, training systems, and automated process controls.

This is why digital retrofit programs for legacy foundries are receiving Department of Defense funding. MxD’s work with Ohio State University focuses on instrumenting existing foundry equipment with sensors, capturing process data, and building digital models of operations that currently exist only in workers’ experience.

At the same time, the industry needs workers fluent in data, digital systems, and automation. The workforce challenge is dual: preserve existing knowledge while building new digital capabilities. Solutions like Digital Foundry as a Service (DFaaS) help bridge this gap by providing turnkey advanced manufacturing without requiring organizations to build internal expertise from scratch.

From CAD to Cast Metal: How Digital Foundries Change the Game

Traditional investment casting requires creating tooling, producing wax patterns, assembling shells, and running through a 12-step process that takes months. Every design change means new tooling. Low-volume production becomes economically prohibitive. Lead times stretch to timelines that don’t match defense operational tempo.

Digital foundry technology collapses this timeline. At DDM Systems, we 3D print ceramic shells directly from CAD files using our LAMP (Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization) technology. No tooling. No wax patterns. No months of waiting. From CAD file to ready-to-pour ceramic shell in days, not months.

This is what the MxD roadmap means by digital transformation. We’re not talking about incremental improvements to legacy processes. We’re talking about fundamentally different manufacturing approaches enabled by digital technologies. Parts in days instead of months. Zero tooling investment. 50% cost reduction. This is the future the roadmap points toward.

When Aerojet Rocketdyne needs RS-25 rocket engine components ($5M contract starting H2 2025), or when the Air Force needs replacement castings for legacy aircraft, traditional foundry timelines don’t work. The Digital Foundry installations we’re planning at Tinker and Robins Air Force Bases (2026-28) aren’t just about capacity. They’re about response time and operational readiness.

Cybersecurity: The Foundation of Digital Manufacturing

As MxD serves as both the nation’s Digital Manufacturing Institute and the Department of Defense’s National Center for Cybersecurity in Manufacturing, the roadmap emphasizes that digitalization without cybersecurity is vulnerability, not capability.

MxD’s CyberSecure Supplier Program has engaged more than 20,000 suppliers to date, working with partners like Boeing, DMG Mori, Oshkosh Defense, and Rolls-Royce. As foundries connect equipment to networks, implement digital twins, and share technical data packages digitally, they create new attack surfaces that adversaries will exploit.

For defense contractors, this isn’t optional. ITAR registration, Defense Industrial Base Consortium membership, and validated cybersecurity practices are prerequisites for working with classified programs. At DDM Systems, our DARPA-funded technology development and active ITAR registration reflect this reality. You can’t retrofit cybersecurity into manufacturing systems after the fact.

The $15M classified Digital Foundry project we’re developing with the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (2026) requires defense-grade cybersecurity from day one. As the MxD roadmap makes clear, digital transformation and cybersecurity must advance together.

What the Roadmap Means for Defense Manufacturing Right Now

The MxD Casting & Forging Digital Fabric roadmap reveals three urgent realities:

First: America’s casting and forging industrial base faces a modernization crisis. High costs, limited incentives, and dangerous digital lag threaten the supply chains that underpin national security.

Second: Digital manufacturing technologies exist today that can transform foundry operations—digital twins, sensor-based monitoring, AI inspection, and direct digital manufacturing like ceramic 3D printing. The question isn’t whether these technologies work. It’s how fast the industry can implement them at scale.

Third: Workforce knowledge transfer is as critical as technology adoption. Capturing tribal knowledge, training digital-native workers, and building sustainable manufacturing capability requires integrated solutions, not piecemeal fixes.

The casting market is growing from $16.55B to $23B by 2030, driven by these dynamics. But growth alone doesn’t solve the readiness problem. The defense industrial base needs foundries that can respond faster, produce with higher quality, and operate securely in contested environments.

Our $50M near-term pipeline at DDM Systems reflects what happens when casting goes digital. The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engine castings. The Air Force base installations. The $15M strategic partnership with Eaton. These aren’t experimental projects. They’re production programs proving that digital foundry technology delivers on the promise the MxD roadmap articulates.

The Window for Action Is Narrowing

If you’re responsible for defense manufacturing capability, supply chain resilience, or program management, the MxD roadmap should inform your immediate planning. The organizations that thrive will be those that act while others study.

The fastest-moving organizations aren’t waiting for perfect information. They’re piloting digital manufacturing technologies, partnering with advanced manufacturing innovators, and building capability before crisis demands it. They understand that modernizing foundry operations takes time, and that time is running out.

When defense program managers visit our facility at 1876 Defoor Ave NW in Atlanta and see ceramic shells being 3D printed directly from CAD files—no tooling, no months of lead time—the conversation changes. It’s no longer “Is digital foundry technology real?” It becomes “How fast can we integrate this into our supply chain?”

The technology works. The economics work. The roadmap is clear. The question is whether your organization can move fast enough to capitalize on what’s possible.

The MxD roadmap isn’t predicting the future of casting and forging. It’s describing the transformation already underway. The defense industrial base that emerges will be digital, secure, and responsive. Or it will be inadequate for the challenges ahead.

If you need precision metal castings delivered 10x faster at 50% lower cost with zero tooling investment—the kind of capability the MxD roadmap says the industry must develop—we should talk. Email me directly at suman.das@ddmsys.com or call +1 470-225-6987

The foundries that win tomorrow’s defense contracts are the ones digitalizing today.

Continue your research: Explore Aerospace and Defense Casting. Related articles: How I Read Defense Policy Documents as Procurement Roadmaps (And You Should Too) and The 2026 National Defense Strategy Isn’t About Foreign Policy. It’s About Your Factory Floor.. For production capabilities, see Rapid Precision Castings capability statement. For more detail, read the Solving the Defense Supply Chain Crisis white paper.