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Enhance Tactical Solid Rocket Motor Development at X-Bow
AFWERX · AFWERX STRATFI · AFWERX
AI-Readiness Score
16/25
Pathway Speed
5/5
Timeline Realism
3/5
Problem Framing
3/5
AI / ML Fit
0/5
Award + Transition
5/5
Award
$14,942,809
Award ceiling
X-BOW LAUNCH SYSTEMS INC
Awardee
Posted February 15, 2024
Description
The focus of this Sequential Phase II STRATFI effort is to further mature X-Bow into a viable supplier of solid rocket motors (SRM) with technology and a novel manufacturing approach to enable a variety of tactical SRMs. X-Bow will build upon the work from the previously awarded AFWERX Direct to Phase II RE-ARM effort that will mature propellant formulations, the solid propellant additive manufacturing system, and process flow to support advancing the overall field of AMSP for DoD applications. X-Bow’s STRATFI proposal includes a form factor 7” diameter solid rocket motor systems that will be static fired and flown.
Score Rationale
AFWERX STRATFI is a top-tier fast-track instrument and the $14.9M ceiling with a Sequential Phase II structure provides a strong transition pathway, earning top marks on those dimensions. However, this solicitation is not AI-shaped in any meaningful way — it is an advanced manufacturing and propulsion engineering effort (additive manufacturing of solid rocket motors), where 'AI' is not mentioned and the core problem is materials science and process engineering, not perception, language, or data modeling. Problem framing is reasonable for what it is but lacks explicit success metrics or data strategy relevant to an AI-native team.