DoD Opens Biofabrication Hub in New Hampshire
The Pentagon has announced plans to open a manufacturing institute focused on the creation of human tissue biofabrication, which will be the seventh defense-related manufacturing center under the Obama administration’s Manufacturing USA program.
The Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) will be based in Manchester, New Hampshire, with the mission to “organize the current fragmented domestic capabilities in tissue biofabrication technology and better position the U.S. relative to global competition,” according to an announcement from the Pentagon.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official who was on hand at a White House event to announce the decision to award ARMI with government funding, called keeping America’s manufacturing edge ““fundamentally important to our national security.”
As an example, Kendall told a story about how during the Cold War, Pentagon planners were concerned about the technological genius of Soviet engineers, but discovered after the war that the equipment suffered from inferior manufacturing techniques and materials. Making sure US industry continues to produce at a high quality is vital for American defense, he added.
