Ireland Degges
Hypersonics provider X-Bow Systems has closed an interim funding round headed by Lockheed Martin’s venture unit.
Crosslink Capital, Razor’s Edge Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, Bravo Victor Venture Capital and Capital Factory were the other investors, X-Bow announced from its Albuquerque, New Mexico headquarters on Thursday.
Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures, explained that the investment in X-Bow is a component of Lockheed’s strategy to “add anti-fragility in the solid rocket motor industrial base by enabling new technology and affordability in this sector” for both its products and the broader U.S. industrial base.
The funds, said X-Bow CEO Jason Hundley, will be used for the company’s solid rocket motor technology and the completion of the first phase of building a new solid rocket motor campus.
“Typically this type of solid rocket motor production capacity takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment to develop. But we are completing our phase one in a matter of months at a fraction of the cost,” he added.
Hundley noted that the facility is commercially funded by X-Bow and the Economic Development Corporation of Luling, Texas. The new investment will support X-Bow’s $60 million STRATFI Program, a U.S. Air Force-sponsored initiative to produce low-cost solid rocket motors.
