FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. \u2014 The U.S. Army is training troops to use 3-D printers to build concrete barracks, or to use drones to gather intelligence in contaminated spots that might be dangerous for soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scanner technology currently used by the law enforcement agencies to document crime scenes in 3-D could someday be used on the battlefield to make maps with previously unthinkable levels of detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of that technology is being tested at Fort Leonard Wood, which showed off the machines to journalists this week. It\u2019s part of a program the Army calls the Maneuver Support, Sustainment, Protection, Integration Experiment. The goal is to allow service members who might use the devices during deployments to test them and have input before the technology is declared field-ready, The Springfield News-Leader<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The strategy makes the military more efficient and saves money, said Mike McCarthy, deputy to the commanding general for the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence at Fort Leonard Wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUsing this process takes 40 percent less time from concept to fielding new technology than traditional methods,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cIt also has a significant cost savings. You don\u2019t have to go back and fix it after fielding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And soldiers, who often have to adapt to survive in the field, can offer ideas for technology that might never occur to engineers in a design-lab setting, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n