Italy’s Avio expands to fill US Army solid rocket motor orders

ROME — Italy’s biggest rocket and missile motor manufacturer, Avio, is set to triple production within five years as the American military and industry look to it to ease a chronic production shortfall in the United States, the firm’s CEO has said.

In July, Avio signed with Raytheon to develop “critical solid rocket motors for defense applications,” as well as partnering with the U.S. Army “for the development and fast-prototyping of a solid rocket motor for surface-to-air applications.”

The demand in the U.S. for Avio’s wares and know-how reflects the demand for rocket motors driven by conflicts around the world as well as a narrowing in supply options following the 2018 purchase of Orbital ATK by Northrop Grumman.

Avio is working on opening a U.S. production site, but will start out by working on its new American workload at its Colleferro site in Italy.

“Today we manufacture 200-300 rocket motors a year at Colleferro and can triple that in 4-5 years on present commitments,” Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo told Defense News.

Avio already works on the propulsion and other components for the Aster 30 missile, as well as solid-propellant rocket motor of the new CAMM-ER air defense missile, while its core business is space, putting 120 satellites into orbit in the last 12 years thanks to 24 launches of its Vega launcher.

Ranzo said approximately two more years would be needed for Avio to qualify Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) products at its Colleferro site as per recent U.S. contracts. The approach would however be faster and safer than waiting for the new facility in the U.S. to start its qualification phase ahead of volume manufacturing, he added.

“U.S. officials have said production in the U.S. would be the ideal, but they understand that takes time. Establishing new capacity cannot be done in months,” he said.

“There are plenty of startups trying to enter this market, but this requires decades of experience in production at scale and a large and authorized site to handle explosives” he added.

Few details have emerged about the two U.S. deals, but Ranzo said, “We have just worked on the new CAMM-ER missile which means we have fresh technical knowledge. Most equivalent systems in the U.S. date to the 1980s.”

Avio set up a U.S. subsidiary, Avio USA, in 2022, appointing as CEO James Syring, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral and former director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Syring told Defense News, “There has been a consolidation of the industrial base, essentially leaving Northrop Grumman and Aerojet as the sole SRM manufacturers, but even before that there has been a longstanding capacity shortfall for the production of rocket motors and missiles vs current demand.”

He added, “This is not a new thing. You talk to customers and prime contractors and they say they would order double if they could. The ongoing conflicts have exacerbated the situation.”

Syring said the company’s expansion aims to top up lagging U.S. production capacity as opposed to capturing market share there.

“We hear ‘Buy American’ a lot, and that is why we are working to establish by a sizeable U.S. factory presence to serve all customers,” Syring said.

He added, “The Department of Defense has been vocal about the need to leverage international production capabilities, given the maxed out supply base. The DoD has been supportive of us getting established.”

As well as capacity, Avio also offered innovations, according to Syring. “Avio has innovative technology and capabilities for booster cases, thermal protections and nozzle manufacturing that no U.S. rocket motor supplier has.”