Castelion
Castelion builds low-cost, mass-producible hypersonic strike missiles engineered for industrial-rate output, targeting U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army requirements.
Background
Castelion was founded in 2022 in Southern California by three former SpaceX engineers: Bryon Hargis (CEO), Sean Pitt (COO), and Andrew Kreitz (CFO).
The trio applied SpaceX-style iterative development and manufacturing philosophy to hypersonic weapons, a domain previously dominated by cost-plus primes with decade-long timelines.
The company's flagship system is Blackbeard, billed as the first U.S. hypersonic weapon explicitly designed for commercial unit cost and continuous flight-test iteration rather than one-off demonstration.
A ground-launch variant, Blackbeard GL, is under development for the U.S. Army's Project HX3. The broader product thesis centers on industrial-rate output — producing hypersonic strike missiles at volumes and price points legacy primes have not demonstrated.
Castelion sells directly to U.S. military services through government contracts and AFRL/NAVAIR grant mechanisms. Headcount was reported at 80–100 employees in early 2025, with LinkedIn estimates placing the team in the 51–200 band as of mid-2026.
Marcus Schuler
Marcus Schuler edits BattlePolicy, a daily defense-technology brief connecting the companies and capabilities behind modern war to the contest among Europe, the US, Russia, and China.