The American defense industrial base has a bottleneck problem, and it isn't a secret. For decades, a cozy duopoly controlled solid rocket motor production, leaving the Pentagon scrambling whenever global tensions spiked and stockpiles ran dry. Now, Washington is injecting millions into alternative propulsion startups to break that chokehold.
Colorado-based propulsion innovator Ursa Major just secured a massive $137 million combined contract from the U.S. Navy and the Office of the Under Secretary of War. The lion's share is a $91 million deal dedicated to building a specialized 7-inch solid rocket motor for the Compact Air-to-Air Missile, known as CAAM. A secondary $46 million contract targets a 10-inch quad-pack motor for the medium-range Naval Modular Missile, or NMM.
If you look closely at what these weapons are meant to achieve, the strategic shift becomes obvious. Modern stealth fighters like the F-35 rely entirely on internal weapons bays to maintain a low radar cross-section. Stuffing more firepower into those tight spaces requires smaller, hyper-efficient munitions that do not sacrifice range or velocity. CAAM is engineered precisely for this reality, acting as a close-in air combat weapon that increases internal loadouts without compromising the stealth profile of the aircraft.
Building a smaller motor that packs the punch of a larger one is an engineering nightmare. Ursa Major is tackling this by using a proprietary propellant design dubbed Highly Loaded Grain. This method jams significantly more fuel volume into a compact 7-inch casing, squeezing out extra energy without expanding the outer dimensions. It matches the diameter of the AIM-120 AMRAAM while outperforming older designs in sheer energy density.
Beyond the engineering specs, the real story here is manufacturing velocity. The Pentagon is tired of waiting years for weapons components. Ursa Major relies on an industrial approach called Lynx, which leans heavily on additive manufacturing or 3D printing to fabricate motor parts. By building development motors using the exact same methods planned for high-rate production, the company aims to bypass the traditional qualification delays that plague legacy defense primes.
Meanwhile, the second award focuses on the 10-inch NMM motor designed for shipboard vertical launch systems. Configured as a quad-pack arrangement, it allows four missiles to fit snugly into a single cell, echoing the packing efficiency of the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile. The Navy envisions NMM as a future replacement for the aging Standard Missile family by fiscal 2032, requiring a manufacturing pipeline capable of churning out high annual volumes.
This isn't Ursa Major's first rodeo with naval propulsion. Earlier in the year, the company picked up a $10 million contract to push its version of the MK 104 motor—the workhorse dual-thrust propulsion system behind SM-2 and SM-6 interceptors—through critical design reviews and static fire tests. They also completed a $25 million cost-share initiative with the Navy and the Office of Strategic Capital, validating their 10-inch Highly Loaded Grain motor alongside naval warfare centers in California and Maryland.
Legacy suppliers still hold massive sway over defense manufacturing, but the defense establishment is actively diversifying its supplier network to prepare for high-intensity conflicts. Funding fresh entrants like Ursa Major introduces true redundancy into the supply chain. If these propulsion systems clear their upcoming design, testing, and qualification hurdles, the military might finally escape the production bottlenecks that have limited its tactical missile capacity for years.
