Northrop Races to Test Rocket Motor to Help Replenish US Stocks

Northrop Grumman Corp. reported a successful test-fire of its new solid rocket motor that was built in less than a year, reflecting the industry’s urgency to meet the Trump administration’s demand for homegrown next-generation defense systems.

An “early look at the data is all as expected and promising,” Robert Fleming, Northrop’s vice president of its space systems sector, told Bloomberg in an interview shortly after the Dec. 4 test at its Promontory, Utah facility.

The solid rocket motor is a critical part used to propel rockets to space and missiles to targets. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, only two US-based ...