Firehawk Defense raises more than $150M in a Series D at over $1.4B, co-led by Advent and Rochefort, to scale artillery and rocket motor output

TLDR

• Firehawk Defense raised more than $150M in a Series D at over $1.4B, co-led by Advent and Rochefort.¹
• The Dallas firm makes artillery and rocket motors and propellant, challenging a long-standing two-company US supplier duopoly.¹²
• Its CEO expects nine-figure revenue next year; the sources report no current revenue figure.³

Firehawk Defense, a Dallas company that describes itself as a defence technology leader in advanced energetics and propulsion, announced on 28 October 2026 that it had closed a Series D of more than $150 million at a valuation above $1.4 billion.¹ Advent and Rochefort Asset Management led, and the release says "new and existing investors and strategic partners" also took part without naming them.¹ Reuters, which calls Advent a private equity firm, says earlier investors include 1789 Capital, the venture firm backed by Donald Trump Jr.² The sources do not say whether Advent or Rochefort had invested before. Tectonic notes the round is a large step up from the $60 million Series C at a $290 million valuation in September 2025.³

D Magazine says Firehawk launched in 2019 to make hybrid rocket engines powered by 3D-printed fuel, and now makes propellant, artillery motors and complete rocket systems at sites in Oklahoma and Mississippi.⁴ Its pitch, per the release, is a patented thermoplastic process that makes energetic feedstock in hours instead of the weeks that batch mixing, casting and curing can take; the feedstock can be stored and later formed by compression molding, extrusion or 3D printing.¹ Reuters says the company is focused on high-volume munitions under 13 inches, such as 155mm artillery base-bleed motors, rocket-assisted take-off motors and Hydra-70 rockets, and that base-bleed motors can extend a shell's range by up to 30 per cent.² Reuters adds that the Hydra-70 is increasingly paired with laser-guidance kits as a low-cost interceptor against aerial drones.² CEO Will Edwards told Tectonic: "Drones are great, but artillery is still needed."³

On traction, D Magazine reports customers including the US Army, the US Air Force and major defence contractors, and a headcount of 150, up from 22 in 2022, when the company had raised more than $22 million.⁴ The release cites a May 2026 teaming agreement with General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems on 155mm base-bleed motors, and an August 2026 live-fire test of Hydra-70 rockets at Yuma Proving Ground that it says had a 100 per cent success rate, following a US Army Other Transaction Authority award.¹ Reuters says Firehawk plans to produce more than 100,000 artillery motors next year under a commercial agreement with General Dynamics, selling first to allied nations while it runs a 12-to-18-month qualification process for the US Army.² Dealroom stresses that those targets depend on facility ramp-up and qualification that have not yet happened.⁵

The money goes to the production site in Lawton, Oklahoma, the missile integration site in Crawford, Mississippi, new research sites and hiring.¹ D Magazine says Lawton is being built to make more than 3 million pounds of propellant a year and Crawford can make about 40,000 small-diameter rockets a year.⁴ Firehawk expects to be the largest US producer of artillery motors and the third largest producer of propellant by the end of 2027, according to the release.¹ Edwards told Tectonic the company will "do over nine figures" in revenue next year, a company forecast that no source checks.³

On the investors, 1789 Capital led the 2025 Series C, joined by Presto Tech Horizons, a joint venture of the Czech venture firm Presto Ventures and the munitions maker Czechoslovak Group, along with Draper Associates, Decisive Point and Stellar Ventures.⁶ Edwards told D Magazine that Texas investors have led or co-led Firehawk's last three rounds.⁴ The sources do not describe Advent's or Rochefort's other defence holdings; the release names Kyle Bass as Rochefort's founder and co-chief executive.¹ Dealroom, using its own classification, puts the deal in the top 5 per cent of all-time late-stage venture rounds in US security start-ups; that figure was not checked here.⁵

Why it matters: a late-stage round of this size is going to a start-up that makes the propellant and motors inside artillery and rockets, a part of the munitions chain that Reuters says two suppliers have long dominated, and it rests on production targets not yet met.²⁵ Watch whether the General Dynamics volumes and the Army qualification arrive on schedule.