The press covering the rise of
the 3D printer has been universally positive and for all intents and purposes
should as the benefits provided by the technology in a number of fields particularly design, prosthetics and medicine. However, the blanket praise for
the 3D printer and its many positive implication is washing over the truly
terrifying consequences of its advent
Last year we got a glimpse into
the bold new world offered by the 3D printer thanks to law student and
anarchist Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed making then using the first 3D printed gun named “the liberator”. The implications of the liberator are
complex and varied but the most concerning of which is that not only can the 3D printer make a gun that fires but the means to produce one is widely available.
Needless to say, governments
across the globe were less than pleased with the prospect of 3D printed guns
ending up in the hands of their citizens as the U.S State Department, not
surprisingly, “through its Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, forced
Wilson to take down the online blueprints for the "Liberator" and all
the other 3D-printed weapon parts that he has made available online”[1].
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However, Wilson, less than
pleased that the liberator blueprints were now offline, realized that the
damage had been done. The blueprints to the liberator had already been
downloaded in the hundreds of thousands and has gone viral and more importantly,
global since. As a result, the Liberator has shown up across the world and in May
27 year old Japanese Yoshitomo Imura made history and became the country’s
first arrest for being in possession of five liberators, two of which being
able to fire live rounds[2].
Whatever is said about the
Liberator no one can deny that it was a ground-breaking and terrifying
innovation in the manufacture of weapons and with all innovations since the
beginning of time, more are sure to follow and thanks to Texas based Solid
Concepts, they did. According to the Guardian the Texas based custom
manufacturer “replicated the parts of a classic Browning 1911 pistol - standard
issue for the US armed forces until 1985 - using direct metal laser sintering
(DMLS), and can now offer 3D printed gun parts to any “qualifying customer”
within five days”[3].
Innovations by Defense
Distributed and Solid Concepts in the manufacture of weapons has shown the
darker side of the 3D printer and all it’s terrifying possibilities but their ambitions
for weapons manufacture using the 3D printer pale in comparison with the US Army
and large weapon manufacturers bid to exploit the 3D printer for their own ends.
Lockheed Martin, major supplier
of the US Army, is looking at where they can make use of the 3D printer to
lower the cost attached in making military grade satellites. According to 3Ders
“Lockheed executives expect additive manufacturing, or 3D printing could help
to reduce cost, cycle time and material waste. 60 percent of its satellites
relies on outside suppliers, Lockheed says its engineers are evaluating which
satellite components could be 3D printed in-house”[4].The company has already made
use of the technology on it other products such as it interplanetary juno
aircraft and is planning to use the 3D printer “to build propulsion tanks”[5].
Along with making their
satellites cheaper to make, the 3D printer may make Lockheed satellites more
efficient as “the light-weighted satellite would allow the government to pack
on more sensors, or launch satellites on smaller, less expensive rockets”[6]. However, The US army is looking
to use the 3D printer for the deadliest weapon of them all, nuclear warheads.
Nuclear warheads are notoriously expensive to make and even more costly to
maintain but with the advent of the 3D printer, warheads, just like Lockheed
Martin’s satellites and tanks, become cheaper and potentially more efficient
instruments of death.
According Motherboard’s Jordan
Pearson “warheads using 3D-printed components could be designed to be more
compact in order to pack in additional payloads, sensors, and safety mechanisms”
which makes an already terrifying weapon just that bit more menacing. However
the terror the doesn’t end there as Pearson points out “Planning for printed
parts in the design process will also allow the army to precisely engineer the
blast radiuses of warheads for maximum effect”[7]
What this means is that not
only has the US military made the nuclear warhead cheaper to make but
potentially a game changer in future wars as they become operationally
effective in military missions abandoning their traditional role as a deterrent
to other states. What this all means in the
wider perspective is while the 3d printer is one of the better innovations of
the last 20 years, it may just be responsible for greater aggression among
states as it weakens one of the main disincentives that prevent war, the
exorbitant cost of prosecuting one.
The ballooning cost of war has
been one of the major factors of why wars since the World War Two have gotten
smaller and less deadly. It’s also why wars aren't as protracted as was before
as long term wars cost money as the US Army, to its detriment, has found out
the hardest way possible in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But the with advent of
the 3D printer, war may become more protracted, cheaper, and deadlier than they've ever been which may produce wry smiles in the pentagon but trepidation
just about everywhere else.
In sum, with the advent of the
3D printer, anything is possible and this fact is probably the most sobering and
terrifying thought of them all.
[1] http://mashable.com/2013/05/09/state-department-3d-printed-gun-takedown/
[2] http://mashable.com/2014/05/08/japan-3d-guns-arrest/
[3] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/08/metal-3d-printed-gun-50-shots
[4] http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140519-lockheed-uses-3d-printing-and-virtual-pathfinding-to-lower-satellite-costs.html
[5]
Ibid
[6]
Ibid
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