November 2025 Volume 7

EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY

The problem is magnified by scarcity. In defense manufacturing, there aren’t dozens of backup presses sitting idle to pick up the slack. When one goes offline, production doesn’t shift to the next factory down the road. It stalls outright. Downtime also carries costs far beyond missed schedules. Contractors face penalties, primes are forced to reshuffle their supply chains, and emergency repairs siphon off defense budgets that should be funding modernization. And the risks aren’t theoretical. The GAO has repeatedly warned that most equipment at U.S. military depots is already past its useful life, creating chronic bottlenecks for repairs and manufacturing. In other words, these failures aren’t “if” scenarios. They’re “when.” Each additional day that presses rely on patched together systems is another day that national defense rests on borrowed time. One company confronting that reality head-on is UNION Technologies, a defense manufacturing systems integrator pioneering highly automated shell-production lines in the U.S. “It’s the single biggest production risk facing NATO today,” says one UNION representative. “Capacity shortfall is about physics and time, regardless of money and will. A press that’s 60 years old can’t run 24/7 under modern tolerances without breaking. Each downtime event cascades across a supply chain that has no slack.” The danger isn’t just lost time. Downtime at a single press can bottleneck entire programs, force reliance on foreign suppliers and create predictable gaps that adversaries can exploit. Outdated Presses Can’t Deliver Modern Precision Modern defense programs require volume and precision. Even a fraction of a millimeter off in an artillery shell, a turbine blade or a satellite component can mean the difference between a reliable system and one prone to failure. Old presses, once a workhorse back in the day, were designed for an earlier era of looser tolerances and slower cycles. Today, they simply aren’t capable of consistently hitting the standards demanded of them. “Many manufacturers are realizing that older equipment just can’t keep up with today’s production needs. Legacy machines may have served well in the past, but they often require more frequent maintenance, offer lower accuracy and take longer to set up.”6 Today, tolerances in aerospace and defense often measure in the thousandths of an inch, and those requirements apply across hundreds of parts that must fit together seamlessly. Yet presses that have been in service for decades are bound to drift out of alignment, suffer from vibration and lack the systems needed to maintain repeatability. Instead of steady output, they produce inconsistent batches that require rework, additional machining, or outright scrapping. “Tolerances refer to how much variation is allowed in a part’s dimensions. And in high-stakes industries like aerospace, automotive, and electronics, those variations must be tiny. A misalignment of even a fraction of a millimeter can lead to malfunctions, reduce the life of the product, or require costly recalls. That’s why manufacturers focus on precision; it’s not just about quality, it’s also about safety, performance, and efficiency.”6 Cycle time is another weakness. Legacy machines typically require long warm-ups, manual adjustments and slow changeovers. In fact, many forging plants report roughly 50 to 60% capacity utilization, partly because their equipment cannot maintain the speed or reliability modern contracts demand.7 Older presses generally lack automation, fast tool-change capabilities and modern control systems, which adds hours (or even days) of delay

each time you switch jobs or adjust specifications. Defense contracts often demand rapid response, flexible production and even surge capacity. And presses that can only run one job at a time, or that take hours to reset, are dead weight. The problem only intensifies with modern materials. Defense primes increasingly rely on titanium, nickel superalloys and advanced composites that require extremely precise pressure curves and temperature control. Older hydraulic or mechanical presses just weren’t built for this complexity. They lack the force consistency and real-time control to form these alloys without defects. The result: higher scrap rates, longer inspection cycles and greater risk of parts being rejected for failing to meet military specifications. Even when parts pass inspection, old presses undermine efficiency. Repeatability is poor, so output varies from one batch to the next. This forces additional inspection and non-destructive testing, tying up manpower and slowing production further. In complex systems like aircraft or naval vessels, this creates integration headaches. Parts from one supplier may not perfectly align with those from another, even when drawings are identical. The root cause is often the press itself: imprecise, worn and past the point of reliability. “Defense manufacturing can’t run on ‘close enough,’” says Jeffrey Walsh, Director of Business Development at Macrodyne Technologies. “Old presses mean more scrap, slower output and wasted time. The industry can’t afford that.” The Lowest Bid Doesn’t Cut It Anymore Once upon a time, defense contracts went to whoever could scribble the smallest number on a bid sheet. Those days are over. In 2025, the lowest bid isn’t a golden ticket. “Cheap” usually means outdated equipment, weak processes and a shop that’s one breakdown away from blowing a delivery. Auditors don’t just want to see your price tag. They want proof you can deliver. They want every part on spec and on time. That means modern presses with automation, digital monitoring and QA systems that can track every cycle. Walk in with a bargain-basement quote with a plan to manufacture mission-critical parts with machines older than your granddad, and you’re not winning contracts. Digital traceability, automated reporting, and compliance with modern manufacturing standards are critical. The 2024 DoD Producibility & Manufacturability Guide makes it explicit: suppliers must demonstrate risk reduction and qualification up front, including statistical process control and verifiable quality data, before production ever begins. 8 If you’re still pretending it’s 1975, know this: your competitors aren’t waiting. They’re investing in digitally connected presses that are cranking out parts faster, with less scrap and tighter tolerances. The real winners are the ones who show they can actually deliver with modern equipment, advanced automation and systems built for today’s defense demands. Servo and Hydraulic Press Systems With Full Automation Ensure Uptime, Quality and Scalability More than 75% of forging companies in a 2024 survey say they’ve invested in robotics.7 If they’re doing that, it’s because automation isn’t nice to have anymore. It’s survival.

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2025 17