Firehawk Defense Series D tops $150 million to build US rocket motors

Firehawk Defense, a US start-up that makes solid rocket motors, announced on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, that it had closed an oversubscribed Series D funding round of more than $150 million at a valuation above $1.4 billion. The round was co-led by private equity firm Advent International and Rochefort Asset Management. The Dallas-based company said the money will scale up its Great Plains Arsenal in Lawton, Oklahoma, and a missile integration facility in Mississippi.

Solid rocket motors are the engines that push missiles, rockets and some artillery shells. They burn a solid fuel, called propellant, packed into a casing. Demand for them has grown as governments restock weapons, and the United States has relied on a small number of large suppliers for many years. That has made rocket motors a bottleneck, and investors are now backing newer companies that promise to make them faster and in larger numbers.

Firehawk's pitch is a different way of making propellant. According to reports of the funding, traditional suppliers mix and cure propellant over weeks, while Firehawk uses a continuous thermoplastic process that it says can mould the solid fuel cores of motors within hours. These are the company's claims. It focuses on small-diameter munitions under 13 inches across, including base-bleed motors for 155mm artillery shells, rocket-assisted take-off motors and Hydra-70 rockets.

The size of the round shows how much private money is flowing into defence manufacturing start-ups. Mr Edwards said the aim is to make the Oklahoma plant the "third largest propellant production facility in the country" by output by the end of next year. Rochefort, one of the co-leads, is a national security-focused investment firm licensed under the US Office of Strategic Capital and the Small Business Administration, according to its announcement.

For Indian readers, the round is a reference point for a sector India is also building. Indian defence start-ups have been raising money for drones, sensors and manufacturing, and the government has pushed for more domestic production of defence equipment. Firehawk's round shows the scale that investors elsewhere are willing to commit to a single supplier of a critical component, and the kind of factory build-out that such money pays for.

Short-term: Firehawk gains money to build out its Oklahoma propellant plant and Mississippi integration site, with low-rate production planned by mid-2027.

Long-term: If the plants reach full output, the United States gains another source of rocket motors for small munitions, adding competition to a market long served by a few large companies.

Who is affected: Firehawk's staff and investors, US defence buyers, established rocket motor makers, and investors and founders in defence manufacturing worldwide, including in India.

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