Titomic USA announced on October 3, 2026, that it has been awarded a $5 million (approx. AUD 6.9 million) defense contract by the U.S. Air Force to supply, integrate, and commission a next-generation TKF (Titomic Kinetic Fusion) cold spray system at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. The turnkey system, based on the TKF 1000 high-pressure cold spray platform, will be used for depot-level manufacturing and sustainment—including anti-corrosion and wear-resistant coatings, additive manufacturing, component repair, and hybrid manufacturing. Tinker AFB is the largest MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) facility in the U.S. Air Force. On the same day, U.S. digital metal manufacturing company VulcanForms and defense technology startup Specter Aerospace announced a strategic partnership to scale manufacturing of air-breathing hypersonic weapons. The collaboration responds to growing demand from the U.S. Congress, Department of Defense, and mission partners for next-generation hypersonic munitions; Specter Aerospace is already using VulcanForms' metal 3D printing capabilities to develop hypersonic vehicles to reduce costs and accelerate design iterations. Matthew Rose, Executive Vice President of VulcanForms, said the goal is to bridge the digital and physical worlds. The remaining items in this briefing cover polymers and consumer-grade content: ExOne Global Holdings announced that Korean automaker Hyundai has installed two VX1000 high-speed sintering (HSS) polymer printers at its Namyang R&D Center for prototyping and low-volume production; Snapmaker, in collaboration with Phaetus, released the U1 high-flow hotend Liber and opened public testing for the Snapmaker Space multi-color model platform. Value for powder buyers: ① The deployment of a cold spray system at the U.S. military's largest MRO base will drive steady consumption and certification demand for cold spray metal powders (titanium, aluminum, nickel-based, etc.) in the North American defense market; ② Scaled hypersonic weapon manufacturing will raise demand expectations for superalloy and refractory metal powders on the defense side, and it is advisable to monitor lead times for relevant grades; ③ The polymer/consumer-grade content (Hyundai HSS, Snapmaker hotend) is not directly related to metal powders and is provided for industry reference only.