WASHINGTON: Not a lot of money is at stake in the Air Force’s Advanced Manufacturing Olympics (AMO) competition in October, but the winners will secure ground-floor spots in the service’s high-priority drive to revolutionize aircraft maintenance.
Advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing, has the potential to “change the way we operate,” Lt. Gen. Robert McMurry, head of Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), explained in a webinar today to preview the AMO technical challenges being held virtually Oct. 20-23. “It will make our operations more efficient; it’ll give us opportunities we never had,” he added.
McMurry is also the PEO for the Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO) that is sponsoring the “olympics,” which originally were to be held in St. Louis at the same time as the pandemic-canceled Tokyo Summer Olympics. Air Force Research Laboratory as well as America Makes, one of DoD’s eight manufacturing innovation institutes, are supporting the AMO.