Castelion scales Rio Rancho hypersonic weapons campus, adds 300 jobs

Rio Rancho is moving to the front line of the Pentagon’s push to mass-produce hypersonic weapons, and Sandoval County is being asked to absorb the benefits and the risks. Castelion says Project Ranger will bring more than $220 million in private investment, about 300 manufacturing jobs and an estimated $650 million in economic impact to New Mexico over the next decade.

The company announced the 1,000-acre campus in Sandoval County on Nov. 17, 2025, and later laid out a fast buildout plan: the first building is expected to be finished in summer 2026, with all 21 campus buildings complete and ready for production by the end of 2026. The site is designed for solid rocket motor manufacturing, static testing and final assembly of hypersonic weapons, making it one of the clearest signs yet that New Mexico is being folded into the national defense supply chain at industrial scale.

That role sharpened in May, when Castelion and the Department of War announced a framework agreement for Blackbeard that guarantees a minimum of 500 missiles a year once testing and validation are complete. The department has also said it is seeking authorization to buy more than 12,000 Blackbeard missiles over five years, a signal that the market for the program could grow far beyond the initial production line in Rio Rancho.

State and local officials have embraced the pitch. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attended the Jan. 21, 2026 groundbreaking and said New Mexico has the workforce, expertise and infrastructure Castelion needs. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich called the project a national security boost that will create more than 300 permanent jobs, while New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rob Black cast it as part of the state’s innovation economy. Sandoval County commissioners had already approved economic development measures tied to the project in October 2025, including a package that local reporting said included a $125 million industrial revenue bond and other support.

But the project has also forced a local reckoning over what kind of growth Rio Rancho wants. Residents have raised concerns about water use, aquifer contamination, noise, safety, traffic and tribal consultation, and a Nov. 13, 2025 Rio Rancho City Council meeting drew a packed room to debate water-service support for the facility. Castelion says no missiles will be launched on the Sandoval County site, and that flight testing will take place at Department of Defense ranges or FAA-approved private ranges. Andrew Kreitz, the company’s co-founder and chief financial officer, has said the buildings are being separated so an incident in one structure would not affect the rest of the campus.

For Sandoval County, Project Ranger is more than a new employer. It is a test of whether a defense manufacturing boom can deliver jobs, tax revenue and supplier spending locally without overwhelming water systems, roads and public trust.