China’s grip on 3D printing is becoming a military security threat for the British
When we talk about national security, most people think of hackers, data leaks, or hostile cyberattacks. Few would imagine that something as ordinary as a 3D printer could pose a similar danger.
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From aerospace parts to prosthetics and drones, 3D printers have transformed how we design, prototype and manufacture. They can make change possible in hours rather than months, at a fraction of the traditional cost.
But as we celebrate this revolution, we also need to keep in mind one critical fact: do we control the hardware - or the software - that drives it?
In the last few years, China has quietly seized almost the entire global market. Chinese manufacturers now produce more than 90 per cent of the world’s desktop 3D printers.
This was no accident. Beijing has listed additive manufacturing as a strategic emerging industry under its Made in China 2025 plan, flooding the sector with subsidies and pushing independent producers out of business.
It was an economic win and even more so, a geopolitical one.
Because dominance over production brings something even more valuable: access to data.
What people don’t realize, that nowadays every 3D printer is in fact a little computer. And like any connected device, it stores and transmits information about what it creates.
That data can reveal which parts are being printed, how they’re designed, and where they’re produced.
If a printer is Chinese-made, it is - by law - connected to a government that routinely positions itself against Western strategic interests. Under China’s National Intelligence Law, any Chinese company, at home or abroad, must provide data to the state upon request, no matter where they are actually stored.
Consider this: a U.S. technological company discovered that its Chinese printers had transmitted more than 100 gigabytes of operational data back to servers in China overnight.
Multiply that risk across every lab, factory and field base using such machines, and the scale of the danger becomes alarming.
It makes no difference whether that data comes from a British military outpost or a UK university. If it touches a Chinese system, the Chinese Communist Party can access it.
Right now, British Army units are deploying 3D printers in the field to adapt and produce drone components. While it’s an extraordinary operational capability, those machines are built by companies legally bound to share data with Beijing.
The Army may be revealing far more than it realises: supply-chain bottlenecks, material shortages, possibly even geolocation metadata. In a conflict, such information could be disastrous.
We’ve been here before. Britain banned Huawei from its 5G networks because of fears that critical infrastructure could become a backdoor for espionage.
Chinese-made CCTV cameras were removed from government buildings for the same reason. The principle is clear: when the cost of connectivity is the loss of control, the price is too high.
3D printers deserve the same scrutiny. These are not just toys or hobbyist gadgets, they are the factories of the future building everything from the newest prototypes to medical devices to drones.
In a real wartime scenario, the implications are huge. If your printers are Chinese, you are effectively giving Beijing a live feed of where your weaknesses lie. Supply chain gaps, mechanical failures, resource needs - all visible in near real-time.
Europe still has the expertise to recover and rebuild trusted, transparent and secure 3D-printing technologies. But that independence will vanish if we keep outsourcing the very machines that shape our industrial and defence capabilities.
We must start viewing 3D printers for what they truly are: strategic industry. By the way, they already do in China.
Britain wouldn’t buy fighter jet engines or radar systems from a strategic rival. It must take the same approach to the manufacturing tools embedded in its security ecosystem.
The question is no longer whether we can afford to buy secure technology - but whether we can afford not to.
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Josef Průša is the, Founder and CEO of Prusa Research
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