U.S. Navy puts $137 million into rocket motors for new air-to-air and ship-launched missiles

The U.S. Navy awarded Ursa Major two contracts totaling $137 million to develop and qualify solid rocket motors for the Compact Air-to-Air Missile and Naval Modular Missile. CAAM uses a compact 7-inch motor with Highly Loaded Grain, while the medium-range NMM variant receives a 10-inch motor intended for existing shipboard launch systems. Funded through the Office of the Under Secretary of War, the awards also expand energetics capacity and apply Ursa Major's additive-manufacturing methods. Both propulsion designs are being developed around production-scale processes, with qualification work preceding high-rate missile motor manufacturing.