If you thought there were enough companies that were making the things that go boom, think again.
This morning, new and stealthy munitions startup Ordnance Aero announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’ve entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (DEVCOM Armaments Center).
Under the agreement, the company will work with DEVCOM AC on integrating little go-boom weapons systems onto UAS and c-UAS.
“The CRADA lets us do a non-monetary exchange of workmanship [with DEVCOM],” Founder and CEO Ryan Curry told Tectonic. “The goal is that we develop these relationships, and through the joint maturation of both of our technologies, [that leads] to programs.”
Pew pew: Ordnance Aero is a pretty new (and under-the-radar) player on the “go boom” scene. The California-based company was founded back in 2024 by Curry and Michael McGlynn and has been pretty much self-funded since.
- The two founders spent years working on drones and basically decided that they wanted to build a better way to arm them. Per Curry, when he was working in UAS, “The smaller systems just weren’t being weaponized, and we felt there was an opportunity to go do that, and that’s what we decided to go after.”
- The company “specializes in solid propulsion systems and ignition systems, and the integration of launched effects onto disparate unmanned systems,” he said. Translation: Tiny weapons systems that can be built onto a small drone.
- Despite being self-funded, Curry said, they’ve won two contracts with the Pentagon—an Army Applications lab contract for “Lethal Precision Guided Payloads for sUAS” in 2024, and one in 2025 with USASOC for “Symbiotic UAS Delivery Systems.”
- They’re also currently raising a $3M pre-seed round. Self-funding can only get you so far, scale-wise.
Build up: Curry said that right now, the company makes six different products:
- An ignition system.
- A solid rocket motor (in development) and another in “conceptual development.”
- Three different lethal payloads, designed specifically for smallish drones. According to Curry, “Those are the most mature out of all of our products, and that’s what we have won contracts on so far.”
The goal of the CRADA—which will last several years—is to figure out how Ordnance Aero’s novel (smaller, cheaper) munitions can best be fitted onto existing platforms. The whole thing is a two-way street—DEVCOM will learn how to integrate new systems, while Ordnance Aero will figure out how to make their kit (currently TRL 3-5) more mature.
- Curry said their effectors are “half the size, half the cost of a traditional effector.”
- He also said that they can “target those same non-heavily armored targets [as a traditional missile], and provide prosecution on those targets from multiple kilometers away.”
- When we asked how they made all the go-boom stuff smaller and cheaper, he said they basically miniaturized the components of traditional missiles. “Almost all effectors that we use today that are fielded were developed in the 70s and brought online in the 80s,” he said. “The larger base munitions that are qualified and out there are dinosaurs.”
Curry also said they’ve finalized another CRADA with another branch, though they couldn’t say who just yet.