May 2026 Volume 8

EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY

Modernization is also not just about presses. It often requires: • New furnaces

new operators and metallurgists up to proficiency. And because this expertise takes many years to rebuild, the industry is facing a structural capability gap that will compound the equipment based capacity shortage. What Must Be Done - A Call to Action To avoid a structural supply chain crisis, the industry must:

• Automated manipulators • Modern heat treat systems • Advanced controls

• Digital process monitoring • Automated strain rate control In short, a press is not a capacity solution — a system is. Strategic Implications - A National Industrial Base at Risk The U.S. forging base has many aging, under invested, and capacity constrained assets. Airbus retains access to Russian forgings; Boeing does not. China continues to invest aggressively in forging infrastructure - capacity that naturally supports COMAC and AVIC but increasingly Airbus as well. Boeing seems to be taking a more careful approach to placing forging business in China with a keen eye on geopolitical risk mitigation. Defense primes depend on domestic forging capability for critical titanium components. Without intervention, the U.S. risks: • Production delays • Higher costs • Loss of competitiveness • National security exposure Workforce Knowledge Has Eroded - and Continues to Erode Forging at the scale of 200MN and above is not a skill taught in universities, trade schools, or standard apprenticeship programs. It is a craft learned over decades, passed down through operators, metallurgists, and maintenance specialists who developed deep, facility specific expertise - often described as “local knowledge” or, informally, “black magic.” Every major press has its own personality, its own quirks, and its own unwritten rules. That knowledge lives in people, not manuals. Over the past decade, that knowledge base has been steadily eroding. The workforce is aging, and many of the most experienced practitioners have already retired, been laid off, or are nearing retirement. The generation now stepping into these roles is capable, motivated, and essential to the future of the industry - but they simply did not have the full opportunity to absorb the decades of tacit, press specific knowledge held by those who left. The economic shocks of 2019–2024 accelerated this gap: many forging companies lost key employees before meaningful knowledge transfer could occur, only realizing afterward how foundational those individuals were to the stability of their core processes. The consequences are now visible across the industry. Even historically strong suppliers are struggling to complete qualifications they would have executed reliably a decade ago. Extended development cycles, inconsistent results, and unexpected process variation often trace back to the same root cause: the loss of institutional knowledge that once stabilized these operations. This erosion is not theoretical. It shows up in schedule slips, scrap rates, qualification failures, and the growing difficulty of bringing

• Align OEM rate ambitions with forging realities • Prioritize modernization of existing U.S. presses • Co invest in new forging capacity • Allocate qualification resources strategically • Rebuild the forging workforce

• Treat hydraulic press capability as a national security asset Large investments often require partnerships between suppliers and OEMs, where the OEM provides qualification support and long term volume commitments. But OEMs typically contract supply for five year periods or more, and if a new supplier fails to qualify on time, the OEM may be left dangerously exposed. Public private partnerships have precedent. The U.S. Air Force invested in the Alcoa and Wyman Gordon large presses in the 1950s. A modern partnership could involve an OEM, a current supplier, an expert technical team, and the U.S. government - with firm benefits for each, including guaranteed capacity and long term favorable pricing and lead times. This is not industrial policy for its own sake. It is industrial policy for rate readiness, economic competitiveness, and national security. Closing - The Industry Is Running Toward a Cliff The aerospace industry is racing toward historic production rates. But unless we recognize the limits of our forging infrastructure, we risk discovering too late that the system cannot support the load. Rate readiness depends not just on assembly lines and suppliers, but on the massive hydraulic presses that anchor the entire aerospace ecosystem. The strategic imperatives are clear: Protect the global press fleet through disciplined planned maintenance, refurbishment, and modernization - while simultaneously accelerating development of the additional capacity the industry will ultimately require. Mesh Feigenbaum is a Senior Aerospace Executive with global experience. Mesh grew up in technology, holding several engineering, engineering leadership and R&D positions before transitioning to business development, strategy and executive leadership roles. This strong grounding in technology has been a cornerstone of his ability to thoroughly understand and strategize for complex businesses. Mesh is a proven, growth-oriented, globally focused leader with international experience who has found his passion in building world-class teams and organizations via a blend

of organic and inorganic opportunities. https://www.engineeredaerometals.com/

FIA MAGAZINE | MAY 2026 17