Ursa Major gets $11M to keep building its Draper missile engine

The U.S. Air Force is putting another $10.9 million into Draper, a liquid-fueled rocket engine that Colorado-based Ursa Major is building for hypersonic missiles, the company said Thursday.

The Air Force Research Laboratory exercised a $10.9 million option on its existing contract with Ursa Major to keep developing the engine, according to a company press release. The company said the option “follows the successful flights of the Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator as part of the same contract.”

“Draper is at the heart of our hypersonics work, and AFRL and the United States Air Force have been partners from day one,” said Jason Meredith, president of Ursa Major. He said the award “moves us closer to putting real capability in the hands of the warfighter.”

Hypersonic weapons fly at more than five times the speed of sound. Most small missiles run on solid rocket motors, which burn at a set rate once lit and can’t be turned down. Draper uses liquid propellants that can be stored in the missile for long periods, like a solid motor, but it can also be throttled up and down in flight, letting a missile change speed and maneuver.

The engine produces about 4,000 pounds of thrust. In 2025, AFRL awarded Ursa Major $28.6 million to build up to a flight demonstration, and by then the company had fired the engine on the ground more than 200 times.

That flight came on Jan. 27. The Air Force’s Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator, powered by Draper, reached supersonic speed. Ursa Major’s then-chief executive, Chris Spagnoletti, said the team went “from contract to flight-ready of an all up round and propulsion system in just eight months.” A second flight followed 45 days after the first.

Draper sits alongside Ursa Major’s other hypersonic engine, Hadley, which powers Stratolaunch’s reusable Talon-A2 test vehicle used by the Department of War for hypersonic testing. The company is also developing HAVOC, which it describes as an affordable hypersonic and long-range strike missile.

Ursa Major also builds solid rocket motors. Last month, the U.S. Navy awarded it $137 million for motors for the Compact Air-to-Air Missile and the Naval Modular Missile.

The company says it has flown its hypersonic systems more than a dozen times.