CoAspire Lands $70M Navy Contract for a 3D Printed Cruise Missile

A small firm takes on a prime's job

The U.S. Navy has awarded California defense firm CoAspire a $70 million contract through Other Transaction Authority to develop the RAACM-ER, short for Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile, Extended Range. The program is aimed at expanding the fleet's long range maritime strike options and, just as importantly, giving allied forces a cheaper way to field them. For a company that started as what its founder describes as a mom and pop operation, the award puts CoAspire squarely in a space long dominated by the largest defense contractors.

Built to change shape fast

CoAspire's pitch rests on additive manufacturing. According to executive vice president Greg Harris, a retired rear admiral, the approach lets the team move quickly: "We can very quickly innovate and adjust the way our missile looks, acts and feels." That is the core promise of 3D printing in defense work. Instead of tooling up for a fixed design, a small engineering team can print, test, and reshape parts in short loops, which suits a weapon meant to be adapted as threats change.

From an F-14 backseat to missile maker

The company's founder, Doug Denneny, is not a typical startup chief. He flew the F-14 Tomcat as a Navy backseater for 3,300 hours before moving to Capitol Hill and then to Boeing, and his goal was to turn a tiny firm into a missile manufacturer. The New York Sun framed the effort as a tiny California company building the Pentagon's next generation of cruise missiles, a sign that the defense startup model is reaching into ground that Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have owned for decades.

Why cheap, printable missiles matter now

The strategic logic is hard to argue with. The wars of the past few years have shown the value of cheap, mass produced standoff weapons, and the U.S. military has been explicit about wanting affordable munitions it can spend without emptying the arsenal. A cruise missile whose design can be iterated on a printer, and whose cost stays low, fits that appetite. If CoAspire delivers, it is a template for how additive manufacturing opens defense work to smaller players who can move faster than the primes.

The RAACM-ER is still in development, and a $70 million OTA is a starting gun rather than a finished product. But the direction is clear: the next generation of cruise missiles may come from a workshop in California as easily as from a legacy giant.