Auriga Space and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (DEVCOM AC) have signed a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to advance electromagnetic (EM) accelerators as a lower-cost, high-cadence solution to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).
Auriga has been developing and testing its electromagnetic propulsion technology under existing Department of War (DoW) contracts, and this agreement brings DEVCOM AC into that work. Under the CRADA, both organizations will share data and expertise to map capabilities and define a development path to bring EM-based counter-drone technology to the field.
The rise of low-cost, high-volume drone threats has exposed a hard tradeoff in current counter-UAS approaches: missile-based interceptors offer range and lethality but at a cost-per-shot and magazine depth that strain against swarm-scale attacks, while directed-energy and other kinetic alternatives each carry their own tradeoffs in range, performance, or logistics burden. Electromagnetic accelerators offer a step outside of that curve: drawing on electrical rather than chemical energy to enable deep magazines and rapid, repeatable firing of inert and guided munitions at a fraction of traditional cost, without the logistics burden of propellant resupply.
Auriga’s EM architecture uses magnetic levitation to eliminate bore contact, while providing adjustable software-controlled acceleration profiles. The company’s development roadmap includes a containerized, transportable EM launch platform designed for exactly this kind of deployable counter-drone mission.
“Attritable drones cost adversaries far less and are far easier to deploy and replenish than present interceptors, and it’s one of the most timely and urgent challenges in modern warfare,” said Winnie Lai, CEO and Founder of Auriga Space. “Electromagnetic propulsion solves for the structural issues with economics and cadence, it’s a working technology we at Auriga are already actively testing, and partnering with DEVCOM AC on further research will bring it that much closer to a deployable capability.”
This CRADA builds on Auriga’s broader portfolio of EM accelerator work for the DoW,
including efforts supporting hypersonic test infrastructure and precision launch applications, and reflects continued interest across the defense community in EM technologies as a complement to existing kinetic and directed-energy counter-UAS systems.
About Auriga Space
Auriga Space is building a reusable, electrically powered launch platform that replaces
traditional rockets with an electromagnetic accelerator for propulsion, eliminating propellant, cutting cost, and launching payloads on-demand. Already serving defense and commercial aerospace customers with high-cadence, low-cost hypersonic testing, Auriga’s core technology scales to applications in responsive space launch, counter-UAS and missile defense, and lunar mass drivers. Auriga’s mission is to make launch truly affordable and easily accessible. For more information, visit www.aurigaspace.com.
About DEVCOM Armaments Center
DEVCOM AC is the primary research and development facility for armaments and munitions, headquartered at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, and is part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. This Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is a research collaboration and does not constitute financial obligation, contract award, or endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Army or the Department of War.
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