Product1 publisher2 min readPublished
Moog is qualifying Niron's rare-earth-free magnets for military actuators ahead of commercial supply
Moog is qualifying Niron's rare-earth-free iron nitride magnets in military actuators while Niron's commercial production is still up to 18 months away. The supply security being pitched to Army buyers depends on that output arriving.
The Product Desk · Product desk
Drafted by a language model from the sources cited here and checked against its claim ledger before publication. How we use AISend a correction
What happened
- Moog and Niron plan to show iron nitride magnets fitted in tested motor hardware at Moog's booth at the AUSA 2026 meeting in Washington this October.
- The magnets are being tested for defense applications that include land vehicles and guided munitions.
- Niron says it has been producing iron nitride magnets and running customer qualification since 2025.
- A Council on Foreign Relations report from October 2025 says China handles more than 99 percent of processing for three rare earths needed for heat-resistant magnets.
- According to CFR, the Department of Defense paid $400 million for a 15 percent stake in rare-earth producer MP Materials in July 2025.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- exposure A program that designs in iron nitride now swaps dependence on Chinese processing for dependence on a single supplier that has not yet begun commercial production.
- constraint Heat is the first performance question for buyers, since CFR's 99 percent processing figure applies to the rare earths used in heat-resistant magnets.
- precedent A finished qualification would give the Defense Department a way to design around rare earths, alongside the equity route it used with MP Materials.
The useful part of Moog's booth at AUSA 2026 in October will come after a visitor has looked at the motor [1]. Moog and Niron said attendees can talk to engineers about integration, qualification timelines and supply availability [9]. A program engineer needs answers on all three before a new magnet goes on a drawing.
The pitch is about supply. "The Army is transforming quickly, and the systems soldiers rely on can only move as fast as the supply chains behind them," Ryan Aures, engineering director at Moog Land and Sea Systems, said in a press release [4]. "Today almost all of that supply runs through a single foreign source," Jonathan Rowntree, Niron's chief executive, said [7]. Niron says its process makes permanent magnets without rare earth materials [15].
The actual work is narrower than that. Moog is testing and qualifying Niron's iron nitride permanent magnets in electromechanical actuators [5]. The companies announced the collaboration in December 2025 [6], so the October show comes about ten months in [1]. The reported release does not include test results or a date for finishing qualification.
Niron says its magnets are already used in AI infrastructure, automotive products, industrial equipment and consumer electronics [14]. In my view that list does not settle the defense question. A buyer specifying actuators for a land vehicle or a guided munition will want results from Moog's actuator work, because that is the testing done for those uses [5].
The companies are selling a supply chain with no single foreign source in it. What a buyer can act on this year is a demonstration and a conversation about qualification. A two-by-two helps sort the decision. One axis is whether the magnet is qualified in your own actuator and duty cycle. The other is whether it is in commercial production you can put on contract.
If both are true, the supply argument holds and the part can replace a rare-earth design. A qualified part without volume can go into the design, with a rare-earth fallback kept on the drawing. A part in volume but not qualified for your application means paying for your own test campaign. With neither, it belongs in a trade study. By the companies' own account, Niron's magnets are in that last box for military actuators today: Moog is still qualifying them, and Niron expects commercial production to begin within the next 18 months [5][11].
What to watch
- Publication of Moog's qualification results for iron nitride magnets in electromechanical actuators, especially at high temperature.
- A start date or volume figure for Niron's commercial production, which it expects within the next 18 months.
- Whether an Army vehicle or munitions program writes iron nitride actuators into a contract after AUSA 2026.