A junior Marine’s 3D-printed fix for a fragile communications antenna is saving the Marine Corps hundreds of thousands of dollars and slashing months-long supply delays across the fleet.
Lance Cpl. Eirick Schule developed a low-cost replacement for a commonly broken antenna mast on a Mobile User Objective System, a fix now being used across multiple units to restore the critical communications gear.
The solution, detailed in a Marine Corps news release, highlights a broader shift as the service turns to 3D printing and in-house innovation to address persistent supply and maintenance gaps.
When Schule joined the Marine Corps in 2022 as an engineer equipment operator, he was assigned to be an armory custodian. But his superiors quickly realized he had untapped technical skills.
They learned he had previously worked as a computer numerically controlled, or CNC, machine operator at an industrial machining company and had an interest in 3D printing and design.
In April 2025, Schule attended a basic additive manufacturing course at the II Marine Expeditionary Force Innovation Campus, where he learned to reverse engineer and print replacement parts.
The campus, a 3D printing hub focused on solving equipment and supply challenges, recently received a Defense Department award for education and workforce development.
During his first week there, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Matthew Pine, the officer in charge, assigned Schule the antenna project, citing the simplicity of the design and the opportunity to evaluate his problem-solving approach.
Through trial and error, Schule refined the process and ultimately produced a replacement mast that passed durability testing and held up during a month-long field exercise.
The scale of the issue became clear that same month.
During a joint exercise, Pine observed antenna masts breaking across multiple units. Replacements cost more than $5,600 each and took over 220 days to arrive. He estimated more than $1 million in damaged equipment across the fleet.
Since then, the II MEF Innovation Campus has produced more than 100 replacement masts at roughly $10 a piece, saving an estimated $600,000 while eliminating years of cumulative supply delays.
For his part, Schule said that he’s “extremely happy” to see something that he made have such an impact.
“Now that I’m back in the (Fleet Marine Force), I’m very eager to see the product I designed be used,” he said. “Especially because I’m now in a communications battalion, so my likelihood of seeing it again is extremely high.”
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