The Army opens the Defense Department's first 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss

Series: Part 1 of 2. Next: The Army's ten 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss come in, with the savings reported three different ways (July 2026).

FORT BLISS, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025 — The Army cut the ribbon on three 3D-printed barracks buildings, which it says are the first 3D-printed structures to meet the Defense Department's Unified Facilities Criteria. Here's what happened, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Feb. 4, 2025)

Outcome: Three buildings opened for training soldiers; first DoD 3D-printed structures to comply with Unified Facilities Criteria, per the Army. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)
Cost: The Army article gives no cost figure.
Scale: About 5,700 sq ft each and up to 56 soldiers per building, per the Army citing ICON. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)

What opened

The ribbon cutting was held Jan. 29, 2025. Two of the buildings are in Pershing Heights and the third is at Camp McGregor, New Mexico, according to the Army's article by David Poe. The facilities are on West Bliss, which the Army calls one of two new sites on the post. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)

According to ICON, as quoted by the Army, each building is about 5,700 square feet, and they were the largest planned 3D-printed structures in the Western Hemisphere when construction began in 2024. Each can house up to 56 soldiers. The first users of the Pershing Heights buildings are soldiers of the 382nd Military Police Detachment, an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts. Fort Bliss processes and trains about 70,000 service members a year, the Army said. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)

How it was built

ICON printed the walls with its Vulcan printer, which the Army describes as weighing about 5 tons, standing about 16 feet tall and spanning 47 feet. The material is Lavacrete, ICON's proprietary concrete-based material. Fort Bliss's Directorate of Public Works and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers handled the safety certifications. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)

Lt. Gen. David Wilson, the Army's deputy chief of staff for installations (G-9), also spoke at the ceremony, according to the Army's article. Col. Brendan Gallagher, the Fort Bliss garrison commander, called them the "largest 3D-printed barracks ever." (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)

Why other services are watching

Stars and Stripes, reporting later in 2025 on a Marine Corps printing unit in Okinawa, cited the Army's figures: each Fort Bliss building spans more than 5,700 square feet and can house up to 56 soldiers. The same report said the Air National Guard trained airmen on a similar printer in April 2025. "Our team was trained to use the 3D Concrete Printer in just four days," Maj. Brian Vickers, project manager for the Expeditionary 3D Concrete Printer, said in the Air Force release Stars and Stripes quoted. "By building with concrete, occupants of these buildings are far more protected from blasts, fragmentation, and small-arms fire." (Stars and Stripes, Sept. 19, 2025)

Part 2 of this series covers the ten-building follow-on order at Fort Bliss, delivered in 2026.

What went wrong

No price tag. The Army's article doesn't say what the three buildings cost or how that compares with conventional barracks. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)
The count later shifted. A July 2026 Fort Bliss release describes the 2024 proof of concept as two buildings, while this Army article says three. ICON's 2026 release describes it as a single structure of nearly 8,000 sq ft. We haven't been able to reconcile these and report each separately. (Fort Bliss via DVIDS, July 28, 2026; ICON, July 29, 2026)
The size is the builder's figure. The 5,700 sq ft number comes from ICON, as the Army notes. (U.S. Army, Feb. 4, 2025)
Unclear what was printed. The Army article doesn't say which parts of the buildings, beyond the printed walls, were built conventionally.
What we don't know yet: the cost per bed, the build time, and how the buildings have held up in use.

Our follow-up question for Fort Bliss

What did the three 2024 buildings cost per square foot against a conventional barracks, and was the proof of concept two buildings or three?

Sources

U.S. Army (David Poe), “Army opens DoD's first 3D printed barracks,” Feb. 4, 2025. army.mil
Stars and Stripes, “From ramps to railheads, Marines explore uses for 3D-printed concrete on Okinawa,” Sept. 19, 2025. stripes.com
Fort Bliss via DVIDS, “Largest DoW Robotic Construction Deployment to Date: Fort Bliss Unveils First of 10 3D-Printed Barracks,” July 28, 2026. dvidshub.net
ICON, “ICON Delivers Largest Robotic Construction Deployment in DoW History at Fort Bliss,” July 29, 2026. iconbuild.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder