Ursa Major completes $25M Solid Rocket Motor pathfinder with U.S. Navy and OSC, validates Lynx production method

Ursa Major has completed its Solid Rocket Motor Manufacturing Pathfinder Program, a cost-share effort with the U.S. Navy and the Office of Strategic Capital worth a combined $25 million. The program wrapped on schedule in February 2026 after the company designed, built, and static-fired a 10-inch Highly Loaded Grain SRM prototype, alongside a proprietary propellant it developed and characterized in-house. The motor met every performance and burn-duration benchmark, giving the Navy a technical baseline and manufacturing template for future 10-inch-diameter SRM systems. Work was coordinated with the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division at China Lake and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division.

The result validates Lynx, Ursa Major's modular production method built around Highly Loaded Grain casting and subsystem commonality across motor variants, which the company says cuts tooling costs and lead times while adding scalability. That matters because U.S. solid rocket motor production capacity has become a bottleneck constraining missile and munitions output, and the Department of War has flagged manufacturability and rapid SRM qualification as a strategic objective. A government-funded pathfinder that finishes on time and hits every technical target gives the Navy a credible domestic alternative supplier as it works to diversify away from the legacy SRM industrial base.

The next test is whether Ursa Major converts this pathfinder into recurring production orders, since a successful Navy validation program does not automatically translate into sustained procurement volume.