In that intersection of commercial investment and national security need, Laurienti saw an opportunity. The aerospace engineer, who had worked on propulsion systems for SpaceX and Blue Origin, decided to start a company focused on building engines for space launch vehicles using advanced manufacturing techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Ursa Major\u2019s first deal wasn\u2019t for a space launcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2017 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory was to supply the company\u2019s Hadley liquid rocket engine for the lab\u2019s X-60A, a hypersonic test vehicle<\/a>. It turns out the same liquid propulsion systems that provide maneuverability and deep throttle capabilities for rockets are also useful for hypersonic aerial targeting and flight testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The contract, Laurienti said, broadened his vision for Ursa Major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHypersonics fell in our lap,\u201d he told C4ISRNET in an interview. \u201cThat, pretty early on, forced us to architect a very dual-use, single engine that could work for space or hypersonics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click here to see the Top 100, a ranking of the largest defense companies in the world.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ursa Major\u2019s expertise remains in rocket propulsion<\/a>, but it is now developing a portfolio of engines that can be used for Defense Department and commercial missions, as well as support a range of air-launched, space and hypersonic applications. In May, the Air Force lab awarded the company a contract to continue developing and testing two of its engines \u2014 Arroway for space and Draper for hypersonic launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Ursa Major\u2019s pathway into the DoD hypersonics market isn\u2019t typical, it\u2019s one of many commercial and nontraditional companies looking to make inroads in a field dominated by defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What they may lack in experience with major defense programs, these startups make up for with specialized expertise, private capital, and novel approaches to developing and producing hardware and software. Some, like Ursa Major, offer flexible, dual-use subsystems and components that could be integrated into the Defense Department\u2019s hypersonic efforts, which are largely focused on developing and testing high-speed weapons and defending against similar systems that adversaries, including China<\/a> and Russia, are building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others are stepping into new territory, developing hypersonic aircraft that could one day pave the way for high-speed military and commercial transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Pentagon looks to begin fielding hypersonic weapons in the next few years<\/a> and eyes a future that could include aircraft traveling and maneuvering at Mach 5 or higher speeds, investing in these companies could help ensure the department has a strong, diverse industrial base on which it can rely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur voice in the DoD lately has been: How do you use what we have built \u2014 if not the end product, all of the underlying technology and capability set \u2014 for adjacent markets?\u201d Laurienti said. \u201cI think the DoD [is] going a layer deeper on the capabilities of these companies, and where they can pull those threads will be really important over the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Venture capitalists invested at least $356 million last year in U.S.-based startups developing hypersonic systems and technology, according to analytics firm PitchBook<\/a>. However, that figure \u2014 up from $78 million in 2020 and $111 million in 2021 \u2014 is likely even higher due to unannounced funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Drawing private funding is crucial for any startup, but particularly for those developing breakthrough capabilities in areas like hypersonics, where extreme heat and complex aerodynamics present significant technological challenges. To attract the early capital needed to build systems that operate in that environment, demonstrating demand is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While most companies developing hypersonic aircraft or supporting technology have long-term commercial ambitions, that market doesn\u2019t yet exist. For those firms, the Defense Department\u2019s interest in hypersonics and its urgency to begin fielding weapons make it a natural first customer, according to Zach Shore, vice president of growth at startup Hermeus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DoD partnerships have been important for the Georgia-based company, helping generate interest from investors and providing access to test facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Founded in 2018, Hermeus secured a $1.5 million contract in 2020 from AFWERX, the Air Force\u2019s innovation arm, and a $60 million follow-on deal in 2021<\/a> to complete development of its reusable hypersonic aircraft, dubbed Quarterhorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company will use the vehicle to validate its Chimera turbine-based combined cycle engine<\/a>, which is built on General Electric\u2019s J85 turbojet system, which powers the Air Force\u2019s T-38 jet trainer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, Hermeus raised $100 million in private capital to complete Quarterhorse development and fund work on a second vehicle \u2014 an uncrewed hypersonic aircraft called Darkhorse. Both efforts will inform work on Halcyon, the company\u2019s commercial passenger aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have to have an intermediary market where you can create revenue and validate the tech,\u201d Shore told C4ISRNET. \u201cThe Defense Department does that. It\u2019s that step in between.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zachary Krevor, CEO at California-based Stratolaunch, said the company\u2019s work with the DoD has helped show investors that there\u2019s demand for hypersonic systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt gives you a lot more credibility as you walk into that investor world,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a real demand, and it\u2019s demonstrated by the contract signing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Will Roper, a former Air Force acquisition executive who now sits on the boards of Ursa Major and Hermeus, said the success of these companies also has implications for the Pentagon. A robust commercial hypersonics market, he explained, could help make future defense development and production more affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf it [the Defense Department] gets this wrong, there\u2019s no guarantee there\u2019s going to be another wave of deep tech companies that are focused on defense,\u201d Roper told C4ISRNET in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pentagon has shown signs it recognizes the value of partnering with companies whose capabilities could help with near-term needs like testing, materials and subsystem technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The department\u2019s tech accelerator, the Defense Innovation Unit, is working to leverage commercial aircraft, payloads and supporting technology to provide more avenues for the DoD to test high-speed systems. Through its HyCAT effort<\/a> \u2014 which stands for hypersonic and high-cadence airborne testing capabilities \u2014 DIU has awarded contracts to Rocket Lab and Fenix Space to provide launch capabilities, and to Australia-based Hypersonix to provide a test vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the second phase of the HyCAT program, DIU plans to choose payloads and other technology to integrate onto the test vehicles, including alternative navigation, advanced communication systems and low-cost materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, DIU\u2019s program manager for HyCAT, said one of the program\u2019s goals is to help the department expand the national security-industrial base for hypersonics by involving commercial companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese are vendors that are not the go-to partners that have been doing hypersonic weapons testing in the past,\u201d he told C4ISRNET in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re fostering the innovation base.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pentagon\u2019s Test Resource Management Center and the Navy are leading a program called the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed<\/a>, or MACH-TB, in which they\u2019re working with traditional and nontraditional companies to demonstrate and validate hypersonic technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stratolaunch, which was founded in 2011, is one of the companies working with the Pentagon on MACH-TB<\/a>. Its Talon-A test bed \u2014 slated to take its first hypersonic flight this fall \u2014 is designed to provide a reusable, affordable system for government and commercial customers to test and validate high-speed components and other technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leveraging commercially available tech for hypersonic applications, Krevor said, is an idea he\u2019s seen the \u201cDoD really starting to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we can start to move technologies that are working in other flight environments or other environments in general and move them into the hypersonic environment, we can really start to short-circuit the typical development timelines for a hypersonic system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, that pull from the Defense Department is starting to happen, albeit at a small scale. Take Varda Space Industries, a California-based in-space manufacturing company founded in 2020: The firm plans to launch small satellites, which it calls \u201cproduction facilities,\u201d<\/a> that are able to build components in orbit and return them to Earth in a capsule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through a strategic funding increase agreement issued last January, the Air Force, NASA and several private investors awarded Varda $60 million to study whether the capsules it will use to return products to Earth could also serve as a test platform for hypersonic materials and components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Varda\u2019s story highlights not only the potential that lies within innovative companies, but the flexibility of these organizations and their interest in adapting to the needs of unlikely customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s an example of how the commercial world, which was moving in one direction, has been able to be repurposed towards DoD efforts in hypersonics,\u201d Clark told C4ISRNET.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the smaller investments in companies like Varda and programs like MACH-TB and HyCAT, the Defense Department\u2019s broader vision for bringing commercial capabilities into its hypersonics programs is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Weber, who is responsible for the Pentagon\u2019s high-level approach to developing, fielding and integrating high-speed systems across the military services, declined an interview with C4ISRNET, and a spokesman refused to answer questions about the DoD\u2019s engagement with commercial firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Clark noted that many of the department\u2019s acquisition approaches still favor larger defense primes, and that its requirements process, which he called \u201cspecialized and aspirational,\u201d tends to emphasize high-end needs for capabilities that can take decades to materialize \u2014 a paradigm that doesn\u2019t always work for nontraditional companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe commercial world is not interested in a 20- or 10-year [research and development] program. They would rather figure out ways to adapt technologies they are already developing to be applied to military use cases,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThat, to me, is the big issue. DoD needs to be able to have a more evolutionary approach to requirements development so that it\u2019s able to tap into commercial capacity as opposed to getting exactly what it wants at the start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roper, who also sits on the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Innovation Board, noted that while the department has shown interest in working with nontraditional companies, it hasn\u2019t backed up its rhetoric with funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are steps in the right direction; they\u2019re just not big in value,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the department cares about hypersonics \u2014 and it certainly talks [like] it does \u2014 then it needs to place a bet on it with the startups that are working in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_18129315142239.jpg.jpg\")
Attracting private investment<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/52551733620_032cfda68b_c.jpg.jpg\")
Defense opportunities<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2023-05-13_Stratolaunch-Separation-Test_OnBoard_2.jpg.jpg\")
The long play<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AFA_Day1_060.jpg.jpg\")