Colorado-based Ursa Major is competing against hypersonic targets with its own high-speed missile designed to operate inside and beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
“HAVOC” is powered by the company’s own Draper system, a storable liquid rocket engine that allows the missile to throttle or restart completely at any point of its flight.
This flexibility complicates enemy tracking and interception efforts, allows the missile to conserve energy, and amplifies its impact with a late-stage speed surge.
The entire HAVOC system is described to be built for mass production and scalability, serving as a cost-conscious solution to time-sensitive aerial threats.
Ursa Major said it achieved a lower price tag for the missile’s engine thanks to a streamlined production process and advanced additive manufacturing designs.
“[HAVOC] delivers a highly capable hypersonic weapon designed from the start to be produced rapidly and in quantity, giving the warfighter a credible and adaptable capability,” Ursa Major Chief Executive Officer Chris Spagnoletti said.
“Keeping pace with our adversaries requires more than exquisite systems, it requires speed to delivery, affordability, and the ability to build at scale.”
Multi-Booster Compatibility
Designed as a multi-domain system, HAVOC can integrate with a range of rocket boosters to increase its launch speed and altitude.
This flexibility also allows the missile to be deployed from multiple platforms, including fighter jets, bombers, vertical launch systems, and ground-based launchers.
Ursa Major brings more than a decade of hypersonic propulsion experience to the program, drawing on its Hadley liquid rocket engines, which have already been tested in real-world flight conditions.
The company has also demonstrated rapid development capabilities through its work with the Air Force Research Laboratory on the Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator program, which is scheduled to take flight soon.
