At a Glance
Problem: U.S. and allied munitions stockpiles are depleted faster than legacy industrial capacity can replenish them, exposing a structural vulnerability in “magazine depth”
Solution: Firehawk’s additive manufacturing enables rapid, flexible, distributed production of solid rocket motors, compressing timelines from weeks to days
Validation: Successfully flight-tested 3D-printed motors analogous to Javelin and Stinger systems through Army programs
Why it matters: A new manufacturing paradigm for scalable, resilient munitions production in a great-power conflict environment
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it triggered the most artillery-intensive conflict in Europe since World War II. The scale and tempo of fires were staggering. At its peak, Ukraine was expending up to 7,000 artillery rounds per day to counter Russian fires estimated as high as 50,000 rounds per day.[1]
The United States and its allies responded decisively, shipping enormous quantities of equipment and munitions to Ukraine. But the pace of consumption vastly exceeded prewar production rates. Prior to the war, the United States produced roughly 15,000 155mm artillery rounds per month1, enough to sustain Ukraine’s peak daily expenditure for only a few days. As a result, the U.S. and its allies were forced to draw deeply from their own stockpiles to sustain Kyiv’s defense.
What had long been treated as a theoretical concern became an operational reality. Western ammunition stockpiles were being depleted faster than the industrial base could replenish them.
The drawdown of munitions in support of Ukraine served as a wake-up call for U.S. defense planners. In a high-intensity conflict, America’s magazine can empty far faster than its industrial base can refill it. Munitions, once viewed as mature, commoditized products, reemerged as a central determinant of military power. That realization has driven a renewed focus on surge production and industrial resilience across the Department of Defense.
The objective today is not merely to replace what has been sent overseas, but to rebuild stockpiles at a scale sufficient for future contingencies, including a potential great-power conflict in the Indo-Pacific. Yet the legacy defense industrial base is struggling to respond at the required speed. Decades of consolidation, underinvestment, and reliance on antiquated manufacturing methods have created structural bottlenecks, particularly in solid rocket motors. Long procurement cycles, limited production lines, and labor-intensive processes constrain scalability precisely when demand is surging.
Firehawk was founded to address this problem.
The company has developed an end-to-end additive propellant manufacturing system that brings greater control, flexibility, and scalability to solid rocket motor production. By leveraging advanced 3D printing techniques, it produces solid propellants that are highly repeatable and mission-tailored. In addition to rockets and missiles, the company’s technology extends to artillery-adjacent propulsion components, including base bleed systems used to improve projectile performance.
Traditional solid rocket motors rely on large-batch casting and curing processes that can take weeks to complete, locking production into long, fragile timelines and limiting the ability to surge output when demand spikes. These methods also constrain where and how motors can be produced, concentrating capacity in a small number of specialized facilities. Firehawk’s additive approach removes many of these constraints by shortening the critical production cycle from weeks to days, reducing material waste, and enabling smaller-footprint, distributed manufacturing facilities that can operate closer to where munitions are needed.
Firehawk does not merely add incremental capacity. It introduces a fundamentally different manufacturing paradigm designed for scale, resilience, and speed.
What makes the company particularly compelling is how quickly it has moved from concept to validated capability. Through a series of government contracts and military trials, Firehawk has demonstrated that additive propellant manufacturing can perform in real weapons systems.
In 2025, it successfully flight-tested 3D-printed rocket motors equivalent to the launch motors used in the Javelin antitank missile and the Stinger antiair missile. These tests, conducted under an Army Applications Lab program, validated that printed propellant could meet real-world performance requirements in tactical missile systems. The company also previously test-fired a hybrid rocket engine analogous to a GMLRS artillery rocket motor, further demonstrating the applicability of its technology across propulsion types.
Looking ahead, U.S. officials have been explicit that China is the pacing challenge for American defense planning. Beijing has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be prepared for a Taiwan contingency by 2027, and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has warned that current U.S. stockpiles may be insufficient for a prolonged high-intensity conflict.[2]
Recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored a hard truth. Materiel stockpiles and production capacity can be as decisive as the weapons themselves. Magazine depth has emerged as a strategic vulnerability.
The U.S. is now responding with urgency. New factories, multiyear procurement contracts, and modern manufacturing approaches are being deployed to rebuild ammunition depth for the first time in generations.
We believe Firehawk will be a critical part of that effort, and we are proud to support them.
[1] S. Erlanger and L. Jakes, U.S. and NATO Scramble to Arm Ukraine and Refill Their Own Arsenals, The New York Times, 26 November 2022.
[2] J. Trevithick, Conflicts ‘Eating Into’ Critical Munitions Stockpiles Needed For China Fight, Top U.S. Officer In Pacific Warns, TWZ, 19 November 2024.