China and Russia have hypersonic missiles. This $13 billion startup wants the U.S. to catch up

For the last couple of months, when someone asked what I was working on, I’d mention in passing “a hypersonics startup,” and almost always got stopped: Wait, roll that back.

The startup is Castelion, based in Torrance, Calif. and working to produce and scale low-cost hypersonic missiles. The term “hypersonic” may have a sci-fi ring to it, but the technology is very real, and there are many reasons to pay attention. As I write at the top of the feature published this past weekend: 

The first thing to know about hypersonic missiles is that they’re air-rippingly fast.

A hypersonic missile, definitionally, moves at least at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound; one could cross the U.S. coast to coast in under 45 minutes. Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonics are maneuverable and unpredictable to watchers, with an uncanny ability to fly low, change course, and skirt radar.

The second thing to know about hypersonics is that China and Russia have them, and the U.S. doesn’t—not really. It’s not for lack of trying: Despite years of research costing billions and some successful tests, the U.S. has yet to fully field a hypersonic missile of its own due to testing complications and production issues. The tech’s been around, but it’s been expensive and difficult to produce at scale.

That’s the chasm that startup Castelion, valued at $13 billion, is betting it can close, even if the defense giants have so far fallen short. “Humans have........

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