The FBI is buying a 3D printer for research into improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

In a notice posted last week, the FBI announced its intention to purchase a $19,000 Stratasys Objet24 3D printer, saying that the device would be used to "support the advanced technical exploitation of evolving and existing high technology explosive devices."

The announcement comes just over a year since 3D-printed gun inventor Cody Wilson fired his plastic pistol for the first time in May 2013 and subsequently uploaded the design files.

In November 2013, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) downloaded, printed, and tested the Liberator, as Wilson's gun is known. Australian and German police are also known to have tested the gun.

But while 3D-printed firearms have been well-debated, the potential threat posed by 3D-printed explosives is less understood. Though, of course, any bomb, 3D-printed or otherwise, would require explosive raw materials, the FBI's purchase suggests it is a threat and opportunity they are actively investigating.

"The 3D printer is cutting-edge technology that will be used by the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center to enhance their capabilities in exploiting improvised explosive devices," an FBI spokesperson told Next Gov.

In addition to being a peek into the FBI's research capabilities, the notice is also somewhat of a shining endorsement for the Objet24 3D printer.

The FBI calls it "the only instrument capable of producing the high accuracy and resolution results to meet Agency testing standards."

If that endorsement wasn't explicit enough, the notice goes on to repeat: "The Objet24 model is the only 3D printer that satisfies all the technical requirements of the FBI."

Alright, we heard you the first time, FBI.

This story originally appeared on Wired UK.