U.S. Navy selects X-Bow Systems to modernize, automate energetics industrial base

X-Bow Systems Inc, a leading non-traditional producer of advanced solid rocket motors (SRMs) and defense technologies, and Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) announced five contracts to-date totaling $60 million for phase 1 design, development, and long-lead procurement to advance the readiness and capacity of the energetics industrial base. The contracts have a period of performance of up to two years.

X-Bow is working several OTA efforts as a key partner to NSWC IHD focused on modernizing and automating key facilities and capabilities related to SRM production. As part of the U.S. Navy's $2.7 billion 15-year modernization plan for NSWC IHD (a piece of the Department of Defense's national defense strategy), this work will help unlock, expand and modernize the nation's energetics manufacturing capabilities while strengthening the Organic Industrial Base's ability to meet solid propellant rocket motor propulsion needs.

Under this initial phase, X-Bow will design, develop, and procure long-lead equipment to modernize and automate several capabilities at Indian Head including inert preparation facilities, propellant casting, automated propellant ingredient feeding, live rocket motor processing, and prototype premixing and curative slurry operations.

"Ensuring our warfighters are prepared for any situation requires a robust organic industrial base," says Jason Hundley, CEO of X-Bow Systems. "Our work to help modernize NSWC Indian Head will increase production capacity of solid rocket motors and other energetics systems to meet the growing needs of the U.S. military."

"Partnerships such as ours with X-Bow are vital in helping us reenergize and ultimately bolster the nation's munitions industrial base," says Dr. Phillip J. Cole, Energetics Manufacturing Department Head of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division.

X-Bow has assembled a team of industry subject matter experts, each with decades of experience in all areas of SRMs, working to help unlock NSWC IHD's latent capacity as a world-class facility for energetics processing and manufacture. X-Bow has already successfully completed several milestones, including completion of the design phase for inert preparation facility and automated propellant ingredient feeding facility on time and within budget, earning a reputation as a trusted partner for NSWC IHD.

In addition to its work at NSWC IHD, X-Bow supplies new SRMs in both strategic and tactical sizes to multiple armed services and commercial customers, while also nearing completion of the world's most affordable production campus for SRMs coming on-line in early 2025.

The United States Navy has awarded X-Bow both the Mk 72 booster and Mk 104 dual-thrust SRM development contracts to further enhance performance and increase capacitance for the service's Standard Missile program. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy also selected X-Bow to provide boost propulsion for the Navy-designed hypersonic All Up Round utilized by the Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike weapon system and the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon System.