Castelion Breaks Ground on $220 Million Hypersonic Manufacturing Campus in New Mexico

New updates have been reported about Castelion.

Castelion has begun construction on Project Ranger, a 1,000-acre hypersonic weapons manufacturing campus in Sandoval County, New Mexico, representing more than $220 million in private investment and anchoring the company’s next phase of production scale-up. The site is designed to support high-rate manufacturing of hypersonic strike systems, including solid rocket motor production, static testing, and final assembly, and is expected to create over 300 high-paying jobs with an average salary near $100,000. State and federal officials, including New Mexico’s governor and senior defense-related leaders, framed the project as both an economic catalyst and a critical contribution to U.S. national security, reinforcing Castelion’s role in closing capability gaps with near-peer adversaries in hypersonic technology. The company expects the first building to be finished this summer and all 21 planned buildings to be operational by the end of 2026, effectively establishing a large-scale industrial base for its product line.

For Castelion, Project Ranger materially expands its manufacturing footprint beyond its Torrance, California headquarters and existing operations in New Mexico, Texas, and California, positioning the firm as a key domestic supplier of hypersonic deterrence solutions. CEO and Co-Founder Bryon Hargis characterized the site as a “renaissance in American manufacturing,” emphasizing New Mexico’s technical workforce and longstanding defense and scientific infrastructure as decisive factors in the location choice. Local and regional partners have committed to supporting infrastructure, workforce, and public services to accelerate Castelion’s ramp-up, while state leaders highlighted the project’s projected $650 million economic impact over the next decade. Strategically, the new campus is expected to enable industrial-rate output of systems such as Castelion’s Blackbeard platform, underpinning more frequent flight testing, lower unit costs, and greater responsiveness to Department of Defense demand for advanced hypersonic strike capabilities.