Covenant unveils low-cost cruise missile as defense startups target U.S. inventory gaps

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Covenant unveils cruise missile

Highlights

Covenant unveiled the Anthem ground-launched cruise missile with a 200 kg payload, mid-six-figure unit cost, and over $150 million in existing orders.
The Dallas manufacturing plant opens with full-rate capacity of 5,000 missiles annually, matched by a German facility, plus 2,000 units from Israel.
Deliveries to an international customer begin this year, with U.S. Army orders set for 2027, targeting Pacific conflict scenarios and supplementing existing long-range systems.

Missile rollout and production plan

As reported by Reuters, Covenant on Wednesday introduced Anthem, a ground-launched cruise missile carrying a payload of more than 200 kg, after two years of development. The company says the weapon is built to be produced in large volumes at a mid-six-figure unit cost once full-rate manufacturing is reached.

Anthem uses a solid rocket motor for takeoff and a heavy-fuel jet engine for cruise flight. Covenant says it has flown the missile more than 200 times over the past year in tests, and executives say the company already has about $150 million in orders booked.

Covenant, founded in 2024, has raised just over $250 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux, 8VC, Aleph and Lightspeed. The startup now employs more than 200 people across the U.S., Germany and Israel, and expects to begin generating revenue in 2027 as deliveries ramp up.

Pacific focus and defense industry impact

Covenant says the missile is designed with a Pacific conflict scenario in mind, particularly for use from allied islands near China. Executives say the system is intended to operate in high volumes alongside longer-range missiles such as RTX's Raytheon-made Tomahawk and Lockheed Martin's JASSM-ER.

The company says an international customer is due to begin taking delivery of German-built Anthems by the end of this year, while U.S. Army deliveries are expected in 2027. Military planners see ground-launched strike weapons as a way to hold targets at risk without relying as heavily on manned aircraft or naval strike groups.

To avoid supply bottlenecks that often slow newer defense contractors, Covenant says it lined up three solid-rocket-motor providers, is adding a fourth, and secured long-term agreements for more than 4,000 jet engines over the next two years. Its 105,000-square-foot Dallas plant opens on Wednesday with expected full-rate capacity of 5,000 missiles a year, while a similarly sized facility in Saxony, Germany will match that output and a smaller northern Israel site will produce 2,000 units annually.

In our earlier article on depleted U.S. missile stockpiles, we discussed how shrinking inventories of key munitions are becoming a readiness problem as manufacturing capacity struggles to replenish supplies fast enough. We also noted that prolonged shortages can weaken deterrence and operational flexibility, highlighting the growing gap between strategic needs, procurement planning, and factory output.

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