US propulsion specialist Ursa Major has announced a new affordable hypersonic missile that can be launched from the air, land and sea.
The Havoc weapon is designed to fill a need for hypersonic weapons that can be produced in sufficient quantities, says the company.
“Keeping pace with our adversaries requires more than exquisite systems, it requires speed to delivery, affordability, and the ability to build at scale,” says Chris Spagnoletti, chief executive of Ursa Major.
“The Ursa Major Havoc missile system delivers a highly capable hypersonic weapon designed from the start to be produced rapidly and in quantity, giving the warfighter a credible and adaptable capability.”
The weapon uses Ursa Major’s Draper engine. The company claims that its liquid-fuelled Draper can be stored safely for years and costs “a fraction” of airbreathing hypersonic weapons.
Havoc can throttle and re-start during all phases of flight, which means it can offer capabilities beyond hypersonic boost glide vehicles, which glide in through the upper atmosphere, and cruise missiles. Ursa Major adds that this capability means that this obviates the requirement for thermal protection, which drives up costs.
“Havoc is multi-domain; the system can operate endo- or exo-atmospherically and eliminates the restrictions and high cost of airbreathing alternatives,” adds Ursa Major.
“The highly modular approach enables integration with various solid rocket motor boosters to enable launch from a wide range of platforms, including fighters, bombers, vertical launch systems, or ground-based launchers with extended range options.”
The company provides no details as to the Havoc’s stage of development, or potential customers.
It says, however, that it has demonstrated its ability to build “complete vehicles and all-up rounds” under the auspices of the US Air Force’s Affordable Research Rapid Missile Demonstrator programme, “which is on track to fly soon”.
In September 2025, Ursa Major secured a $35 million contract from an undisclosed US defence aerospace company for an unspecified number of Draper engines.
In late 2024 aerospace start-up Stratolaunch completed a milestone hypersonic flight with its reusable Talon-A vehicle, powered by Ursa Major’s Hadley engine.
