The initiative is designed to forge trusted partnerships and match innovative U.S. and allied companies’ with advanced manufacturing providers – and by doing so accomplish the twin goals of delivering critical capability faster at scale, and, catalyzing domestic manufacturing that will help build and scale a resilient and agile defense industrial base.
About Blue Manufacturing
Blue Manufacturing is a call for trusted partners, parts production, and advanced manufacturing capabilities to ensure the best advanced manufacturing is brought to bear for national security. To meet current and future threats, and ensure that our partners in the commercial tech sector are prepared to meet the resulting increase in demand as well as to help catalyze the development of the advanced manufacturing sector in the United States, DIU launched Blue Manufacturing in April 2025. The initiative is designed to forge trusted partnerships and match innovative U.S. and allied companies’ with advanced manufacturing providers – and by doing so accomplish the twin goals of delivering critical capability faster at scale, and, catalyzing domestic manufacturing that will help build and scale a resilient and agile defense industrial base.
(Submissions due for consideration by 2025-05-23 23:59:59 US/Pacific Time.)
“At DIU, we have the opportunity to work with a number of commercially derived tech companies who are incredibly advanced in their hardware and software in support of defense needs, many of whom will need to scale dramatically to meet the need to help meet expanding threats and reestablish deterrence. At the same time, there are incredible companies in advanced manufacturing - right here in the United States - with deep expertise in everything from digital engineering to 3D printing and everything in between, that are looking for a lot more places to deploy their capabilities so that they can grow, and who want to contribute to national security,” said DIU Director, Doug Beck. “The Blue Manufacturing Initiative will focus on pairing the very best hardware and software manufacturers in defense technology with the very best advanced manufacturing providers to help both strategically critical industries to scale.”
Additional Background
As a business-to-business (B2B) referral marketplace, Blue Manufacturing envisions a future where the companies have rapid access to state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, ensuring the timely delivery of critical equipment and reducing reliance on foreign supply chains. The goals and vision of the Blue Manufacturing framework includes delivering…
A B2B marketplace of vetted, best-in-class advanced manufacturing solutions;
Business partnerships between the manufacturing innovation base and critical technology developers; and
An agile and trusted supply chain for scaled production of essential national security platforms.
How Companies Can Participate
Vendors seeking to be accepted into the Blue Manufacturing Marketplace will have the opportunity to submit their solutions through an assessment process and leveraging DIU’s new multi-stakeholder partnership authority (10 U.S.C. § 4127(e)).
A team of subject matter experts will evaluate submissions and select finalists screening for key things like cyber, adversarial capital, supply chain risk, etc. In the short term, a successful Marketplace will enable technology companies to seamlessly identify and work with trusted manufacturing entities. Longer term success will enable the DoD and USG to have a stronger U.S. and partner based supply chain for scaling needed technologies. Admission to the marketplace beyond the initial cohort will be on a rolling basis for providers that meet the relevant criteria.
In this Blue Manufacturing information session, you will:
Hear from program leadership about the initiative's vision;
Understand the submission and assessment steps; and
Get answers to questions about Blue Manufacturing.
Initial Solution Categories
Parts Production: Large-format metal additive
Parts Production: Small-format metal additive
Parts Production: Composite or ceramic additive
Parts Production: Automated metal machining and forming
Automated and advanced post-processing
3D-printed tooling
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the specific submission requirements (format, content, etc.)? A: 15 page (max) slide deck or 5 page (max) white paper
Q: What specific DoD manufacturing challenges is the program trying to solve? A: Blue Manufacturing aims to highlight trusted manufacturing partners that developers of solutions addressing the DoD can work with as they seek to scale their production.
Q: What Technology Readiness Level (TRL) / Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRL) are acceptable? A: The most compelling applicants will be at a stage where they can readily partner with and aid in the scaling of a mature technology developer.
Q: Is there a preference for U.S.-based or small businesses? A: All businesses excepting those domiciled or operating in a covered country are eligible to apply. The program aims to help small commercial companies, who often have trouble reaching the high production scaling the DoD requires, as they’ll have access to a list of manufacturers capable of advanced technologies that they can rely on to help diminish some of the common challenges they face.