COSTA MESA, Calif.—Solid rocket motor supplier Anduril Industries was recently awarded $14.3 million by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) under Title III of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to expand the solid rocket motors industrial base.
The investment by the U.S. government builds on Anduril’s initial $75 million private capital investment to “produce large volumes of [solid rocket motors] at reduced costs,” the company said in a release.
Strained munitions production, underscored by recent global conflicts, has led the U.S. Congress and the Department of Defense to prioritize strengthening the solid rocket motors industrial base.
Anduril stated in the release that it is using the Defense Production Act Title III investment at its facility in McHenry, Mississippi, to develop and qualify next-generation solid rocket motors that demonstrate its innovative manufacturing technologies. According to the Costa Mesa-based company, these technologies include “bladeless speed-mixing, single-piece flow, and advanced manufacturing technologies.”
Company representatives said the funding will also bolster Anduril’s existing work to design, build, and test second-stage rocket motors for programs of record and other large-scale weapons, including the U.S. Navy’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) program.
“This combination of private and public resources reflects a shared commitment to addressing America’s urgent need for scalable, high-performance rocket motor production, and it clearly establishes Anduril as the new entrant best positioned to deliver full-rate SRM production capacity on a rapid timeline,” the release stated.
According to Anduril, the traditional solid rocket motor industry has struggled under the weight of outdated, manual, and analog processes for decades. The resulting bottlenecks and delays are said to have hindered the development and deployment of a wide range of weapons systems relied upon by U.S. conventional deterrence. Anduril stated that through its partnership with the Department of Defense, it will “continue to advance the future of scalable, high-quality [solid rocket motor] production” needed to “rebuild the arsenal of democracy.”