The Need for Speed in Mil/Aero Manufacturing

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Military and aerospace manufacturers are being asked to move faster, whether developing new drone technologies, responding to supply constraints, or getting new designs from prototype to production. James Hofer of Accurate Circuit Engineering sees that pressure as changing more than just manufacturing schedules. He talks about the growing role of quick-turn PCB fabrication, new relationships between defense primes and startups, and why even long-established approaches to standards and manufacturing have to become more adaptable.

Marcy LaRont: James, I’d like to begin our conversation with your work in the mil-aero market, including some of the conferences you’ve attended in that space. What are you seeing right now?

James Hofer: The industry is getting busier and, for many reasons, there is a need to increase the country’s stockpiles of armament. We’ve learned that the defense industry needs to make a change, moving away from those multi-million-dollar missiles toward a more cost-effective consumable defense product.

LaRont: What is the primary driver for that?

Hofer: It has been drones and their usage in military conflict. These multi-million-dollar missiles are basically giant drones locked onto a trajectory. Now, we have consumable drones that are much more adaptable than we previously thought, so we have to develop defenses against those drones.

We're learning that the aerospace industry needs to be able to pick something up from the battlefield, reverse engineer it, remodel it, and then repurpose it. That’s exactly where ACE  comes in because we are a quick-turn facility. There are plenty of manufacturers that can build tens of thousands of good boards in 10  to 20 weeks, but sometimes the military needs manufacturers that can build boards in a few days. We’re not the only ones we are one of the fastest, and we definitely help fill that gap.

LaRont: You also have to do it well, correct? A new PCB facility still has to fine-tune its process at the level that ACE is doing. Can one just pick up and do that?

Hofer: No, you can’t. You have to have what’s called a process prove out, and there’s just no way around that.

Right now, there are some other things going on as well. One of our resin suppliers in Saudi Arabia was damaged at the start of the Iran conflict, which has strained supplies of resins needed for epoxies. There’s also an E-glass shortage, as AI data centers are trying to get boards as fast as they can and consuming more than their fair share of the raw materials used in many other types of PCBs. This is driving lead times for high-performance laminates to be above and beyond 10 weeks.

Tariffs are another issue; they are extremely high. Many copper-clad laminates are above 35% tariffs.

To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the October 2026 I-Connect007 Magazine, click here.