Ursa Major completes $25M Navy/OSC pathfinder, static-fires 10-inch 3D-printed solid rocket motor

Ursa Major has completed a solid rocket motor manufacturing pathfinder program run jointly with the US Navy and the Office of Strategic Capital, closing out in February 2026 on a combined $25 million investment from the three parties. Under the program, the company designed, built, and static-fired a 10-inch high-loaded-grade (HLG) solid rocket motor prototype, while also developing and characterizing a proprietary propellant formulation for the motor. Work was carried out with Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head, and Navy acquisition offices, and the prototype met all performance and burn-duration targets. CEO Chris Spagnoletti framed the result as proof that government capital can convert directly into measurable manufacturing capacity on defense-relevant timelines.

Ursa Major built its reputation on liquid rocket engines, Hadley and Ripley, where additive manufacturing replaced cast-and-machine production chains to cut lead times and cost. This program extends that manufacturing logic to solid rocket motors, a segment where production has concentrated among a handful of legacy suppliers with long lead times and steep qualification barriers for new entrants. The company is channeling the funded capacity expansion into Lynx, a modular manufacturing process built around HLG technology that shares tooling and subsystems across motor variants to lower mold costs and compress delivery schedules. The real target of the pathfinder is not the single test article but a repeatable qualification pathway for a non-traditional, additively manufactured supplier to enter a supply base that has been effectively closed for decades.

For buyers, the signal to track is whether the Navy and other services move from this single 10-inch HLG design toward multi-diameter motor families built on the same Lynx tooling base, which would be the real test of cost and schedule advantage over incumbent solid rocket motor producers. Given the DoD's stated interest in diversifying a concentrated SRM supply chain, follow-on production contracts rather than additional demonstration funding would mark the next credible milestone.