Ursa Major Wraps $25M Navy Pathfinder, Proving 3D-Printed Solid Rocket Motors Can Scale

Key takeaways

Ursa Major has completed its Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) Manufacturing Pathfinder Program, run in partnership with the U.S. Navy and the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC).
The effort was a $25 million joint investment — roughly half from the government, matched by Ursa Major — and concluded on schedule in February 2026.
The company designed, built and successfully static-fired a 10-inch Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) SRM prototype, and developed a proprietary propellant that met all performance and burn-duration targets.
The program refined Lynx, Ursa Major’s additive-manufacturing-driven production process, which cuts tooling costs and lead times by sharing subsystems across motor variants.
The result: a validated technical and manufacturing foundation for future Navy systems that need a 10-inch-diameter solid rocket motor — and a template for scaling U.S. SRM capacity.

The news: a Navy rocket motor program wraps on schedule

Colorado-based propulsion company Ursa Major announced that it has successfully completed its SRM Manufacturing Pathfinder Program, a cost-share effort conducted with the U.S. Navy and the Office of Strategic Capital. The program represented a $25 million joint investment — OSC and the Navy committed $12.5 million, which Ursa Major matched — and, notably for a defense manufacturing project, it concluded on schedule in February 2026. The completion was reported by VoxelMatters this weekend.

Over the course of the program, Ursa Major designed, manufactured and static-fired a 10-inch SRM prototype built around its Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) architecture. The company also developed and characterized a proprietary propellant for the motor. According to Ursa Major, the prototype met all of its performance objectives and burn-duration requirements — establishing a technical and manufacturing baseline for future U.S. Navy systems that call for a 10-inch-diameter solid rocket motor.

“In partnership with the Navy and OSC, we translated capital into real, measurable outcomes that scaled manufacturing capacity and advanced a production model built for speed and surge,” said Ursa Major CEO Chris Spagnoletti in the announcement.

Why additive manufacturing is the story here

Ursa Major is best known for 3D-printed liquid rocket engines like Hadley and Draper, but the Lynx process at the heart of this program is its play for the solid rocket motor market. Lynx leans on additive manufacturing to produce a common, modular set of components that can be shared across multiple motor variants. Instead of dedicated tooling for every motor design — the traditional approach, where retooling can take months and dominates cost — subsystem commonality lets one production line flex between variants.

That matters because solid rocket motors are one of the tightest bottlenecks in the U.S. defense industrial base. Demand for missiles and interceptors has surged while the number of large SRM suppliers has consolidated to a handful. Programs like this pathfinder are explicitly designed to prove that newer, additively driven production methods can add real capacity — quickly and at surge-friendly economics. Ursa Major says the program also funded facility scaling and process improvements, with milestones deliberately structured to act as a pathfinder for larger motor systems. The company runs its additive manufacturing operations out of Youngstown, Ohio, alongside its Berthoud, Colorado headquarters.

Why it matters beyond defense

The completion is also a data point in a broader trend we have been tracking: 3D printing moving from prototyping into qualified, safety-critical serial production. A static-fired, spec-meeting rocket motor — with a new propellant, produced on a modular AM-based line, delivered on schedule — is exactly the kind of proof the technology needs in front of skeptical program offices. The Office of Strategic Capital’s involvement is notable too: rather than a conventional procurement contract, OSC uses investment-style tools to crowd private capital into strategic manufacturing. A matched $25 million program that hits its milestones on time makes that model easier to repeat across the additive sector.

What comes next

Ursa Major says it is now ready to scale production to meet the Navy’s demand for solid rocket motors, with the 10-inch HLG design serving as the foundation for larger systems. The company has been busy on other fronts as well — its Hadley liquid engine recently logged its tenth consecutive successful hypersonic flight, and its Draper engine has been flying at an accelerated cadence with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Expect the SRM line to follow the same playbook: iterate fast, fly often, and let additive manufacturing carry the production math.

FAQ

What is the SRM Manufacturing Pathfinder Program?

It was a $25 million cost-share program between Ursa Major, the U.S. Navy and the DoD’s Office of Strategic Capital to mature Ursa Major’s additive-manufacturing-based solid rocket motor production. It concluded on schedule in February 2026, with completion announced in July.

What did Ursa Major actually build?

A 10-inch-diameter Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) solid rocket motor prototype, plus a proprietary propellant developed for it. The motor was successfully static-fired and met all performance and burn-duration requirements.

What is Lynx?

Lynx is Ursa Major’s modular SRM manufacturing process. It uses additive manufacturing and shared subsystems across motor variants, which reduces tooling costs and lead times compared with traditional, motor-specific production lines.

Why does the U.S. need more solid rocket motor capacity?

SRMs power most missiles and interceptors, and demand has outpaced a supplier base that has consolidated to very few large producers. Scalable, AM-driven production is one of the main strategies for closing that gap.

Sources: Ursa Major press release (PR Newswire), VoxelMatters.