Ursa Major’s Draper liquid fuel rocket engine, which aims at a lower maintenance burden, was tested onboard AFRL’s Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator.
AFRL and Ursa Major’s cooperatively developed Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator (ARMD) was tested with the latter’s new Draper liquid fuel rocket engine.
The ARMD programme’s goal is to demonstrate a more sustainable and compact solution for a hypersonic missile, as opposed to more sophisticated designs like the HGV-based AGM-183 ARRW, LRHW, and scramjet-powered HAWC. The project is a part of the new approach on the US side, exploring rocket-based hypersonics as an alternative rather than a replacement.
The Draper engine used by the demonstrator is noteworthy for bringing the throttling and thrust vectoring advantages while mitigating maintenance burden with its use of a kerosene and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Draper has a thrust rating of 4000 lbf or 1.81 kN.
Alongside its use on ARMD, Ursa Major plans to use the Draper engine on its Havoc hypersonic missile.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
