Perth-based Additive Manufacturing specialist Aurora Labs has signed a three-year non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with European missile house MBDA.
Under the MoU the two companies will explore “Business and technical opportunities to further develop ITAR-free 3D printed engines and assess the possibility of their use, and in particular the Aurora Labs 3D printed turbojet engines of interest to MBDA,” the company said in a media release.
Aurora Labs has also sold 20 of its 400N (about 90lbst) AU4 turbojets, worth $250,000, to support an undisclosed customer’s new product development program. This will help gather real-world flight and performance data at the customer’s own flight test facility and accelerate Aurora’s propulsion development roadmap, the company says.
Turbojet-powered UASs typically have a longer range and higher speed than battery-powered UASs, says Aurora Labs. “We’re excited by both the technical challenges we’re facing with MBDA and the potential to scale-up production very significantly,” Rebekah Letheby, the company’s CEO, told ADM. Additive Manufacture, or 3D printing, enables rapid technology development, swift production ramp-up and ongoing configuration flexibility, she added.
Importantly, being developed wholly in Australia the company’s products are free of the extremely restrictive US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) regime, applied by the US State Department. Both MBDA and Aurora Labs will collaborate on the development of the latter’s 3D printed turbojet technology and the identification of potential ITAR-free applications and opportunities for it in the guided weapons domain.
In Ukraine alone demand for UASs is more than 200,000 a month, according to US thinktank the Hudson Institute. Added to demand from Middle Eastern war zones and with the Western powers ramping up their own holdings of UASs, even though many of these UAS will be powered by short-range (15km or less) batteries while others will be too big and have too long a range for Aurora Labs’ turbojets, that leaves ongoing demand of potentially several thousand UASs, and hence turbojets, each month.
Aurora Labs, often referred to simply as A3D, 3D prints both critical rocket motor and missile parts, along with turbojets which can be used in missile systems and Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UASs). Originally a designer and manufacturer of 3D printers, it started experimenting with 3D printing of miniature gas turbine engines four years ago.
It won $1 million-worth of contracts from the Department of Defence in 2024/25 to develop a range of further novel propulsion innovations. It says it could readily build turbojets and turbofans producing up to 3,000N, or 675lbst. Realistically, anything much bigger than this belongs in the domain of the incumbent jet engine manufacturers, the company acknowledges.
In August 2024 Perth-based UAS manufacturer Innovaero and A3D announced they would collaborate to develop a 3D printed turbojet. The first use for it will be in the recently launched OWL-X loitering munition and UAS interceptor, a development of the OWL-B loitering munition which was selected late last year by Defence.
It’s understood that, for speed, Innovaero’s initial aim is to use an existing off the shelf engine for Phase 1 development of OWL-X, with A3D potentially developing an all-new power unit in parallel.
MBDA is a European consortium jointly owned by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo. It has a growing footprint in Australia and says it is in active dialogue with more than 60 Australian companies, of whom 15 are in what it terms ‘close relationships’.
The parent company is positioning to enable Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) objectives by focussing on industry collaboration and sovereign technology development. Alongside existing agreements with BAE Systems Australia and Thales Australia, on 5 November last year MBDA signed an MoU with Brisbane-based NIOA Group to explore local manufacture under license of the warhead for the Mistral Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) system.
The Mistral, and many of MBDA’s other products, also need Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs), both for launch and short-range sustained flight, and a mix of SRMs and turbine engines for launch followed by long-range sustained flight. The majority of such motors are made in either China, which is unacceptable to a military manufacturer, or the US where they fall under the ITAR regime. MBDA is looking, says a source, to leverage its expertise to support the sovereign development of novel propulsion, alongside other subsystems, for both production volume and reduced costs, hence its interest in A3D’s ITAR-free technology and 3D printing.