Anduril officially brought a massive amount of solid rocket motor (SRM) factories online in Mississippi. It meets the demand for America’s space and defense missions and competes to challenge decades of replicating between two major defense contractors.
The Mississippi plant is capable of producing 6,000 tactical motors per year by the end of 2026, sufficient to position Andrill as the “third” SRM supplier in the United States. Over 700 motors have already passed static test combustion. These motors are also used in a variety of motion weapons, such as missile interceptors, as well as deep probes.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions in the South China Sea, demand for weapons has skyrocketed, resulting in a handful of promising startups pushing behind them. The Department of Defense is keen to strengthen American weapons, awarding millions of funds to new entrants such as the URSA major and X-bow system, winning products from prototypes to commercialisation.
As more SRM manufacturers come online, the vulnerabilities of another segment of the supply chain become more apparent.
All of the motors produced by these companies still require ammonium perchlorate (AP), a powerful oxidizer made on a large scale only by Utah’s US Pacific, or by qualified producers called AMPAC.
Northrop Grumman, a manufacturer of weapons using SRMS, has invested more than $100 million to establish an AP production line, but its production was slow to expand due to military certification standards, the Wall Street Journal reported last year. Northrop did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
The AP supply chain is a choke point felt by suppliers, including Anduril. While the risks remain the same, including accidents and fires that have the ability to destroy critical assets, the company believes that recovery from the second supplier is essential and will welcome additional suppliers.
TechCrunch Events
San Francisco
|
October 27th-29th, 2025
While this is not a new issue, the SRM duopoli held by Northrop Grumman and L3 Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne are increasingly challenged by Andrill and others, highlighting supply chain vulnerabilities.
Jerry McGinn, a former senior industrial base employee at the Department of Defense, said the need for multiple AP suppliers had reduced as demand for SRMS fell in the 1990s. The Pentagon supported “mergers and modern mergers” in the 1990s, preferring to have one healthy provider over two struggling companies that were not competitive without government subsidies, he said.
He argued that the risk of single source today is less about capacity than the revival of demand signals. “Capacity never matters,” he said. “A sufficient order and lead time to create fuel.”
In April, AMPAC announced that its parent company invested $100 million in new AP production lines, which would increase capacity by 50%. The project is expected to be completed next year, and even if everything goes into planning, it is a deadline. AMPAC did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comments regarding the status of that new line.
The balance between demand and lead time is delicate.
When talking to lawmakers in February, Pentagon takeover chief Bill Laplante called it a “lead-time tyranny,” warning of “feast-or-famine” procurement actions of past eras.
“The industry also has a clear and consistent demand signal from DOD, and often relies on certain procurement volumes to build additional capacity “at risk” over several years,” he said.
Ursa’s major touted the manufacturing process of additives to avoid the pitfalls that slowed down traditional manufacturing approaches, a spokesperson said. But even the most innovatively made motors require an AP to burn.
Funding for SRM manufacturing is part of a greater push to fund industrial bases. For McGinn, if Washington could prototype the motor, it should also be able to prototype the AP.
“If developing a second source is essential, the government should focus on that by doing what it did with URSA majors, X-bows and other sources of AP,” he said.
We are constantly aiming to evolve and you can help us by providing insights into TechCrunch and your perspective and feedback on our coverage and events! Fill in this research to let us know how we are doing and get the opportunity to win an award in return!
