Ursa Major tipped to supply additively manufactured rocket motors to Pentagon
March 1, 2024
Ursa Major Technologies Inc, located in Berthoud, Colorado, USA, is close to receiving a contract to produce solid fuel rocket motors for the Pentagon, reports Reuters.
US officials are said to be seeking suppliers beyond the two dominant rocket engine makers, Northrop Grumman and L3 Harris Technologies, as it looks to meet missile and rocket orders to supply the war efforts in Ukraine and Israel, and to re-stock dwindling US inventories.
The contract, although expected to be relatively small and fall under the Pentagon’s development programmes, would be seen as a big vote of confidence in Ursa Major and its metal Additive Manufacturing technology.
“As soon as I get the FY (fiscal year) ’24 budget, I am going to drop it on a small company that is going to do Additive Manufacturing of a solid rocket motor,” Heidi Shyu, under secretary of defence for research and engineering, told Congress last week. “We can’t wait to get them on contract.”
While Shyu did not name the company or reveal the size of the contract during her testimony, she did say that the company had been working closely with the Navy. A congressional aide and an industry executive who spoke on condition of anonymity reportedly said Shyu was referring to Ursa Major.
An industry executive from a large defence prime contractor said Ursa Major’s motors can be used in any small diameter weapons like the new Boeing and SAAB Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), RTX’s SM-6 rockets and Lockheed Martin’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) which are used heavily in Ukraine.
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