Firehawk Aerospace, a Texas-based startup that bills itself as a propulsion solutions company, in the past two weeks has announced two separate awards from the Army and Air Force to advance work on its hybrid rocket engines and solid rocket motors that it hopes will result in new suppliers to power everything from small to strategic missiles.
Firehawk touts its 3D printing technology for rocket propellants based on readily available chemistries as one of its key enablers to rapidly produce at scale and quickly meet increasing Defense Department demand for rocket motors and engines as demand for missile systems dependent on these components grows.
The company is also building its own motor and engine casings, giving it more control over its supply chain.
“This isn’t a science experiment to us,” Will Edwards, Firehawk’s CEO, told Defense Daily
on Wednesday. “We are trying to control our supply chain and once we have that control, we build a product and that end product is a rocket engine.”
Justin Karl, the company’s chief technology officer, said during the virtual interview that unlike legacy rocket motor companies, as a relatively new entity, five-year-old Firehawk was able to base its development and future production on commodities and technologies that currently exist and will be around for years, mitigating bottlenecks in its supply chain.
Those supplier constraints do not “affect us because we chose alloys, and chemistries, and material in general that we knew we could get readily available for a long period of time, no question, from multiple suppliers within the United States,” Karl said. “All of our componentry is off-the-shelf and selected from places where you can get it today, not 180 days from now.”
Karl spoke from Firehawk’s new 30-square mile flight-test range in West Texas where the company this month plans to launch its hybrid engine as it begins to qualify the test site. Edwards said the company wanted its own launch site so that it did not have to “wait in line” at another organization’s range to test and fly when it wants. He said other companies are also wanting to fly at Firehawk’s range.
The 3D-Ultra Hybrid Rocket Engine includes Firehawk’s 3D printed solid fuel propellant that is mixed with nitrous oxide to combust. The hybrid engine is currently being developed to be able to propel Army missile systems such as the Guided Launch Multiple Launch Rocket artillery, Javelin anti-armor, and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
The one-year $4.5 million Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract is with the Army Applications Laboratory and is focused on the hybrid engine. The award shows that development of the engine is far enough along to begin working with the Army to integrate it on their missile systems, go through the qualification process, and hopefully get a production contract at some point, Edwards said.
Firehawk’s work on the hybrid engine and its solid propellant led to the company also pursuing solid rocket motor design and development.
The $50,000 Phase I SBIR contract is with the Air Force’s AFWERX unit that works to help mature capabilities being developed by commercial companies for defense purposes. Edwards said the contract will allow Firehawk to build relationships with the Air Force and hopefully lead to follow-on research and development contracts.
Karl said the jump to a solid rocket motor (SRM) product is relatively easy based on the work with the hybrid engine. For the Air Force, the applications could range from air-launched missiles to larger systems for “global strike,” he said.
Firehawk is based in Dallas. In addition to the headquarters and flight-test range, the company also has a ground-test facility in Midland, Texas, where it conducts test fires of its engines and motors. So far, the company has raised nearly $30 million in capital from investors that include RTX [RTX], Star Castle, Decisive Point Ventures, Draper & Associates, Goff Capital, and Cubit Capital.
RTX, through its Raytheon segment, has invested in Firehawk twice, providing the small company mentorship and other help, Edwards and Karl said.
Karl said that Firehawk is “really close” to the point where it can be a rocket motor and engine supplier to the missile contractors.