Defence tech is blowing up Silicon Valley’s beliefs

Hardware is all the rage. So is patriotism

IN THE BACK of an unmarked office building close to LAX, the main airport of Los Angeles, stands a rack of unarmed hypersonic missiles the size of small drainpipes. On February 6th a camouflaged truck ferried one away to New Mexico for a test launch with the US Air Force. Such activity used to be common in El Segundo, the LA neighbourhood that was once a hub of military spaceflight. Then the cold war ended and with it much of the west-coast weapons business. Now it’s coming back. Castelion, which makes the projectiles, was founded in 2022 by three alumni of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket-and-satellite company, which was also created in El Segundo.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The warrior spirit”

From the February 15th 2025 edition

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