Ursa Major and US Navy invest $25 million in SRM manufacturing
The money will be used to complete an advanced manufacturing pathfinder program for the designing, manufacturing, and testing of a Navy SRM prototype
Ursa Major, the leading privately funded rocket propulsion company in the US, has been chosen by the Department of Defense (DoD) as one of the inaugural recipients of investments from the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) to strengthen critical supply chain technologies needed for national security. The OSC announced the $12.5 million joint investment contract in partnership with the US Navy to mature Ursa Major’s Lynx solid rocket motor (SRM) manufacturing process – which is heavily reliant on 3D printing technology. Ursa Major will match the DoD investment representing a $25 million expansion of the company’s SRM capabilities.
Ursa Major’s investment will be used to complete an advanced manufacturing pathfinder program for the designing, manufacturing, and testing of a Navy SRM prototype. The company is currently developing a second source Mk104 Dual Thrust Rocket Motor (DTRM) for the Navy under a separate award – earlier this year, the company signed a contract with the Naval Energetics Systems and Technologies (NEST) Program to develop and hot-fire test a prototype solid rocket motor (SRM) for the US Navy’s Standard Missile (SM) program).
The OSC was established to increase investments in priority critical technology areas for national security. Ursa Major, part of the first group of companies OSC has selected, will focus the investment on advancing manufacturing capability in the areas of propellant manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and composite case winding in support of SRMs for national security missions.
“We are proud to work with OSC on their mandate for expanding the defense industrial base by bringing new innovations into the DoD ecosystem,” said Dan Jablonsky, CEO of Ursa Major. “Ursa Major is revolutionizing manufacturing approaches used in propulsion development in the United States, building flexibility of production and scalability into manufacturing for our defense customers.”
This project is a partnership between Ursa Major, the Naval Air Weapons Center China Lake, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division.
