X-Bow wins Army deal to supply 3D-printed rocket boosters
The contract ties additive manufacturing to the Army’s low-cost missile push and could speed production of combat-ready motors.
X-Bow Systems has landed a Leidos deal to supply 3D-printed rocket boosters for the U.S. Army’s Low-Cost Containerized Munition program, a move aimed at producing cheaper cruise-missile hardware at scale. The company says additive manufacturing lets it move from design to test much faster than traditional defense contractors, and founder Jason Hundley says the approach is meant to deliver combat-ready motors in production quantities. X-Bow was founded in 2016 and says it has already built more than 2,100 combat-ready rocket motors. The program sits inside the Pentagon’s broader effort to rebuild domestic defense manufacturing under the “Arsenal of Freedom” initiative.
Why it matters
For the Army, the deal points to a cheaper path to produce missile hardware at scale without waiting on slower traditional methods. For X-Bow, it turns a company founded in 2016 and already claiming more than 2,100 combat-ready motors into a supplier for a Pentagon manufacturing drive. That makes the program a test of whether the Army can get production-ready parts faster through domestic industry.
Keep or strike?
Does this story matter, or is it hype? Mark it before you see what everyone else did.
Sources
- Tom's Hardware