X-Bow Systems, a non-traditional advanced supplier of solid rocket motors (SRMs) and defense technologies company, announced the successful static test of the Ballesta-34 solid rocket motor, nicknamed the XB-32. At ~34 inches in diameter, X-Bow’s XB-32 is the world’s largest advanced manufactured solid propellant motor fired to date with its patented manufacturing technology. This groundbreaking achievement not only marks a significant technological milestone in X-Bow’s Advanced Manufactured Solid Propellant (AMSP) process, but also represents a significant step forward in the industry’s use of additive and advanced manufacturing for both strategic and tactical sized propulsion systems.
The successful static fire validates the scaling feature of AMSP. X-Bow has previously manufactured and tested hundreds of smaller tactical sized motors. The XB-32 is part of the larger Ballesta family of Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs), a modular motor platform designed for use as both first stage and second-stage boosters in government and commercial launch systems. X-Bow now joins the likes of Northrop Grumman and L3 Harris as the only other U.S. companies producing strategic class solid rocket motors. X-Bow is the only company to use and test fire a strategic class SRM with a revolutionary affordable advanced manufacturing system.
The results yielded from the test align within the predicted margin of error with X-Bow’s models, verifying the accuracy and predictability of its AMSP manufactured motors. With these results, X-Bow is now rapidly moving to its planned flight demonstration of the AMSP technology in the coming months. The propellant grain for this ground-breaking test fire was produced in X-Bow’s New Mexico Tech University hosted R&D facilities in Socorro, New Mexico. This test also marked the 150th energetics test at X-Bow’s Luling Texas SRM giga-campus.