Army opens 3D printing hub

The Indian Army has opened its first additive manufacturing center, a 3D-printing hub meant to make critical spare parts faster and closer to where equipment is used. (telanganatoday.com) The facility, called Rachnalaya, was inaugurated on December 18, 2025 at the Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering in Secunderabad by Lieutenant General Devendra Sharma, who then led Army Training Command. It is equipped for both metal and polymer printing of parts used across Army equipment. (telanganatoday.com) 3D printing builds an object layer by layer from a digital file, instead of cutting it out of a larger block or waiting for a factory run. For an army workshop, that means a bracket, casing or other hard-to-source part can be produced locally when inventories run thin or supply lines slow down. (drdo.gov.in) (pib.gov.in) The Army has tied that repair-and-make capability to a wider push into drones, sensors and battlefield data. During the same period, officers at Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering were briefed on work in artificial intelligence, machine learning, drones, additive manufacturing and electronic warfare systems. (telanganatoday.com) That shift has shown up in field exercises. In March 2026, the Army tested Shaurya Squadrons with armoured units at Exercise Amogh Jwala near Jhansi, using surveillance drones, swarm drones, first-person-view drones and loitering munitions to shorten the time between spotting a target and striking it. (news18.com) (newindianexpress.com) Indian Army sources told The New Indian Express the concept is still in trials, but the scale is clear: the service fields about 63 armoured regiments, each with roughly 45 tanks, and wants drone capability pushed down to unit level. The same report said infantry units had already raised Ashni platoons for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and strike roles. (newindianexpress.com) The manufacturing side is also being built outside Army bases. On August 4, 2025, Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi inaugurated Agnishodh, the Indian Army Research Cell at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, to connect academic research with operational needs under the Army’s modernization program. (pib.gov.in) India’s wider defence research system has been investing in the same production method. In January 2025, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said its Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad had demonstrated a large metal additive manufacturing machine with a one-meter-by-one-meter-by-three-meter build volume. (pib.gov.in) Put together, the Army’s new workshop is less a standalone machine room than part of a logistics plan: print some parts in-house, repair equipment faster, and support units that are adding more drones, sensors and electronic warfare tools to everyday operations. (telanganatoday.com) (pib.gov.in)