These 3d printers are increasingly widely used in engineering - particularly for rapid prototyping.
A project I worked on, we used them a lot for making wind tunnel models over the last few years. Brilliant - design it today, print it tomorrow, get it in the wind tunnel the day after.
I notice that the article gives the right longform for UAV at the start, then gets it wrong later - I'd venture this is probably a ****-up by Southampton's press office. I can't see the really quite clever aeronautical engineers at Southampton calling it a woodworking tool either.
G