The $13 billion startup racing to close America’s hypersonic gap

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 done it, just not Americans,” says Castelion CEO and cofounder Bryon Hargis. “I firmly believe it’s doable.”

The Torrance, Calif.-based startup has become a darling of the defense tech boom, in part because it encapsulates the movement’s raison d’être: The U.S. must rebuild its industrial base faster, cheaper, and with an eye to scale. The war in Iran has crystallized that bleak reality: The U.S. is firing missiles faster than it can replace them, by an order of years.

Castelion was founded in 2022 by three former SpaceX executives: Hargis, Andrew Kreitz, and Sean Pitt. (Hargis started the military-grade satellite network Starshield; Kreitz ran classified finance; and Pitt led sales of Falcon 9s in Europe.)

The enterprise got off to an almost comically inauspicious start: In an early Zoom pitch to the Pentagon’s innovation outfit, the founders said they planned to compete with Lockheed Martin at building affordable hypersonics. The room laughed, Pitt recalls.

But the tables have turned: Castelion, in less than two-and-a-half years, took its low-cost hypersonic missile Blackbeard from a drawing to progressing reality—and it’s designated as a “program of record,” the elusive and coveted government budget line that makes (and often breaks) defense sector entrants.

This places Castelion in direct competition with Lockheed, the maker of hypersonic race favorite Dark Eagle, a program that’s been in process since 2017—and is reportedly three years behind schedule. (“Dark Eagle has successfully deployed in support of Indo-Pacific exercises and completed multiple successful flight-test events,” an Army spokesperson said via email. “The Army continues planned operational assessment activities.”)

In September, the U.S. Navy awarded Castelion a contract worth up to $200 million for Blackbeard, which documents say can be made for less than $500,000 each. (In comparison, Tomahawk missiles can cost millions each.) Blackbeards have had successful test........

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