U.S. defense technology company Anduril has announced that it completed two successful live-fire tests of its 21-inch hypersonic rocket motor for the Navy, an important step in the emerging technology’s production.
Anduril completed the tests last month as part of the Navy’s Standard Missile program, aimed at developing cheap and efficient missiles, the company said Tuesday.
The company says that its investments in its missile facilities in Mississippi have improved the solid rocket motor technology and that it hopes to begin scaling production soon to bring hypersonic missiles to the Navy.
“Anduril is bringing solid rocket motor production forward by leveraging single-piece flow, automation, and advanced data analytics to accelerate throughput, improve quality and drive down cost,” the company said. “This successful test validates the manufacturing technologies that Anduril aims to bring to the nation’s industrial base.”
The company said its facilities run on a single-piece flow production system, allowing multiple stages of production to be run simultaneously. The system provides the efficiency and speed needed to meet growing demand.
“This successful test firing demonstrates that innovation and efficiency can go hand in hand, simultaneously expanding the industrial base and increasing agility in production,” Anduril said. “As global competition intensifies, Anduril remains committed to ensuring that the United States and its allies stay ahead, equipped with the solutions needed to maintain superiority.”
In recent years, the U.S. military has increased missile production to meet overseas demand in places like Ukraine. However, the production of solid rocket motors used to propel barrages of cheap missiles is lagging. The Army tapped Anduril last month to produce a 4.75-inch solid rocket motor, and the company has invested nearly $90 million over the past year to improve its production capacity.
