\n<\/p>\n
One builds weapons in hopes that they are not used. Thus goes the central premise of deterrence theory, which says it is the credible threat of aggression \u2014 not the use of aggression \u2014 that will ensure states avoid war.<\/p>\n
This theory has dominated much of America\u2019s strategic thinking over the past 50-plus years, but new technologies and new adversaries threaten to upend the status quo. For the first time, China has started to outpace the U.S. in critical weapons programs \u2014 the country developed a new type of weapon called a hypersonic glide vehicle as early as 2014, which can strike Taipei and the Taiwan Strait in about 20 minutes from the country\u2019s strategic bases in the South China Sea. America\u2019s comparative sluggishness to develop such tech could result in the U.S. falling catastrophically behind its adversaries.<\/p>\n
The founders of Castelion<\/a>, a startup that emerged from stealth this week, cut straight to the point: \u201cSimply put \u2014 this cannot be allowed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n The 11-month-old defense startup wants to completely rethink defense hardware development for complex systems, starting with long-range strike hypersonic weapons, a capability that Castelion co-founder and CEO Bryon Hargis called \u201ca national, strategic-level non-nuclear deterrent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChina is going faster than us in basically every area,\u201d he said. \u201cThey pass the U.S. in some areas, but if you give them enough time, they\u2019re going to pass us in all areas if we don\u2019t do something different. It\u2019s, in my opinion, existential. We grew up in an era of fairly good security and I don\u2019t know necessarily that our children are to have that opportunity if somebody doesn\u2019t do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Castelion was founded by a trio of ex-SpaceXers, Bryon Hargis, Sean Pitt and Andrew Kreitz, in November 2022. The company is part of a wave of new defense tech startups that have little faith in large American primes and their ability to ensure the country retains its dominant position in the global asymmetry of military power.<\/p>\n In a blog post<\/a> announcing Castelion, the trio say as much, writing that conditions in the defense industrial base, like consolidation, production delays and ballooning program costs, \u201chave left our nation in a worse position to protect democracy and confront our adversaries around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The startup wants to do things differently: move faster, design hardware to be produced at scale, and vertically integrate to cut costs. Pitt said that long-range strike weapons were a clear opportunity for an agile hardware development approach.<\/p>\n Its thesis has caught investor support, with the company closing a $14.2 million initial funding round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lavrock Ventures, with participation from First In, BlueYard Capital and Champion Hill Ventures.<\/p>\n Castelion\u2019s founding team is notable for their individual success in the aerospace industry. Hargis, a mechanical engineer by training, joined SpaceX in 2017 and eventually became a senior director of government sales, essentially building out an entire government sales team and that enormous line of business for the company; Pitt was the original salesperson for SpaceX\u2019s hugely successful ride-share program and eventually became director of launch and human spaceflight sales for the European continent; and Kreitz was a senior investment banker at Goldman Sachs before joining SpaceX as senior finance manager.<\/p>\n Hargis and Pitt worked alongside each other at SpaceX\u2019s D.C. office, and Hargis and Kreitz worked directly together regarding finance matters. The three would talk on the evenings and weekends, Pitt said, and the thesis for the company started forming. It was clear that they would have to leave SpaceX if they wanted to focus on defense hardware: SpaceX is not a defense company, even if its technologies do much to serve the national interest.<\/p>\n \u201cSpaceX is fundamentally a Mars company,\u201d Kreitz said. \u201cIt will do great defense work if it\u2019s along that development path, but [it] isn\u2019t core, and that\u2019s what precipitated us leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n Hargis echoed these comments: \u201cI think we did some amazing work at SpaceX for national security that will continue to pay dividends for the country for probably multiple decades to come. But I really wanted to be more focused on defense than SpaceX wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Castelion is kicking off its focus on hypersonic missile systems. The U.S. wants to procure these capabilities for a handful of reasons, many of which have to do with the particulars of the Western Pacific theater. These systems offer a big boost in range without a commensurate energy cost, which is critical for safely covering the roughly 1,800 miles between the U.S. territory of Guam and the coast of China. As two officials from the U.S. Department of Defense put it in a recent op-ed<\/a>, all <\/em>of the missiles in America\u2019s arsenal \u201cappropriate for the Western Pacific theater\u201d will need to fly at Mach speeds.<\/p>\n Hypersonic missiles are also highly maneuverable, which makes it difficult to predict where they will strike. But perhaps most importantly, they offer a non-nuclear deterrence option \u2014 a way for both the United States and China to avoid a severely catastrophic outcome that both countries have vowed to avoid via the adoption of no-first use policies.<\/p>\n Of course, Castelion can\u2019t simply turn up on Uncle Sam\u2019s doorstep one day with a fully finished hypersonic weapon and a bill. Instead, the El Segundo, California\u2013based startup is taking time to build its credibility with missile subsystems: solid rocket motors, low-cost avionics and ultra-high temperature ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials. The idea is to first become a supplier to a prime working on an existing hypersonic missile program, before eventually building complete missile systems all in-house.<\/p>\nMaking American deterrence credible again<\/h2>\n