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Community addresses Project Ranger concerns with Castelion
Andrew Kretiz, CFO and cofounder of Castelion Corporation, speaks to community members about Project Ranger at The Hub at Enchanted Hills Tuesday, Dec. 9.
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RIO RANCHO — About two dozen people filled the library in the Hub in Enchanted Hills Tuesday afternoon for a chance to learn more about the Project Ranger facility that is coming to Sandoval County.
Castelion Corporation announced last month that a site located about 3 miles west of Rio Rancho would be the home to their new hypersonic missile production facility after announcing in August that it was a finalist.
This week, Castelion is hosting a series of office hours and community meetings, of which Tuesday’s event was the first. Andrew Kreitz, Castelion CFO and cofounder, started off by explaining why the nation is in need of such production.
“Our adversaries … they are 20 years ahead of us in this technology,” he said. “That creates a very scary situation in the Pacific right now.”
He noted the “substantial national need” for development and production of hypersonic missiles — which travel at a speed faster than Mach 5 on a very specific trajectory path that are “very hard to intercept” — at a high volume and low cost. Volume and production rates matter, he said, and the company is stepping in as a contractor for the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) and others.
“That’s what the country is missing right now,” Kreitz said. “We as a country have the lowest munitions stockpile that we have had since the outbreak of the Second World War,” noting that much of what the U.S. had was sent to Ukraine to help fight Russia.
He said that there is a lot of effort coming from Washington, D.C., to solve the problem, and it’s one of the company’s goals.
Kreitz then moved into a summary of what the facility will be doing, with the main function of mixing, casting and producing solid rocket motors, which he said have a long shelf life and are insensitive to environmental factors.
He compared the process of casting the motors to baking, saying that dry ingredients, including ammonium perchlorate and powdered aluminum, will be mixed with wet ingredients in a specialized mixture and process to create a slurry, which will then be cast into a motor case tube to be cured to finish the solid rocket motor.
Those motors will then be developed into all-up rounds and shipped off site to Castelion’s customers.
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“We’re not synthesizing any chemicals (at the Rio Rancho facility),” Kreitz said, and the only testing done on site will be static fire testing of the rocket motors to “make sure everything is supposed to be performing the day it’s supposed to be performing.”
That testing will be able to be heard in Northern Meadows, with Kreitz comparing it to the sound of a vacuum for people outdoors in the neighborhood closest to the facility. However, that testing will, on average, be a couple of times a week and be in spurts of about 30 seconds during business hours only, he said.
Timeline and infrastructure
Kretiz said the details of an exact timeline of the facility are being nailed down but that they are “moving expeditiously” and are “under substantial pressure from our customers to have the first deliveries of units in 2027.”
A few jobs have already been posted on the Careers tab of the Castelion website with more coming in the second half of 2026, particularly for construction, security, engineers and technicians.
Staff, which is expected to hit at least 300 in the first five years, will be about a 50-50 split between design and manufacturing engineers with additional roles in site administration, support and security.
He did say that work has begun on site clearing and grading.
Additionally, Kreitz noted the plan to expand Paseo del Volcan from its current end at Unser Boulevard out to the facility and the priority is to make sure that work is done soon.
Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson said the Project Ranger facility is helping develop the Paseo del Volcan extension as a concept. “It’s the most progress we’ve made on PdV in a long, long time, and it provides another reason to extend to I-40,” he said.
Additionally, the city of Rio Rancho will be providing water and sewer service to the facility, Councilman Bob Tyler said. Water usage at the facility is projected to use the same amount of water as 40-50 houses, an estimate Tyler said was at the high end.
Johnson also noted that 633 lots were taken off the market for the land for Project Ranger.
“We don’t use any processed water at the facility,” Kreitz said, noting that the water use will be for sinks, bathrooms and kitchens for the employees at the site.
Tyler also said that Rio Rancho is a place that’s not in danger of running out of water, noting that they are taking an approach to smart, cautious growth rather than turning way projects and that they are injecting more water into the aquifer and purchasing additional water rights.
“We’re not in a mode where we’re going to run out of water,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that water is something that residents will have.
Additionally, other utilities, such as power, will be built out the site at Castelion’s expense, Kreitz said.
Additionally, all waste will be picked up by an approved contractor and disposed of off-site, he said.
Security, mitigations and hazard plans
With a 1,000-acre site with multiple buildings — and missile being in the name of the manufactured product — a lot of concerns about potential hazards came up during the discussion.
“I know this sounds frightening because it’s something you don’t ever deal with,” Kreitz said. “There’s a lot of steps, a lot of processes to make sure an accident doesn’t happen.”
That includes the facility being developed in a way production can be done safely, including spacing the buildings to federal regulations with fire breaks built in between them.
In the event of a worst-case scenario, Kreitz said, the buildings are meant to be evacuated and sacrificed. The spacing — designed prevent “hazard arcs” from one building crossing over into another building — and the fire breaks make sure any fire doesn’t spread.
Kreitz also noted that DOD regulations and international fire code state that buildings housing certain materials do not allow for sprinkler systems as the materials have a negative effect when combined with water.
Tyler noted that a plan is currently being developed for fire response between the city, county and the state and that he’s “comfortable that we’ll be able to mitigate that in the future.”
“I have every confidence they’re going to work out the best solution,” he added.
Tyler also said hydrants will be installed to meet the needs of the facility for buildings without the variances and that Fire Station 6 will be built out more.
Johnson said that in addition to that, Sandoval County is looking at building an additional station in the area of Project Ranger and that its development moves the timeline for that up “considerably.”
“We do have a responsibility to the residents out there,” he said.
One of the concerns raised was the possibility of the materials getting into the groundwater.
Those materials will be handled in specific buildings in a specific manner, Kreitz said. That includes arriving in double-wrapped and sealed in plastic bags and placed in specialized barrels for transport, he noted. They can only be opened inside rooms that are equipped with HEPA filtration systems by workers in PPE suits. The dust will also be cleared out on a regular basis.
Additionally, all processing, including the motor testing, will be done on concrete pads as another barrier.
“There are very limited, specifically designed space where the chemical is handled,” Kreitz said.
Kreitz also said that the architects and civil engineers have spent a lot of time developing plans for the facility to prevent rain runoff from running into the nearby arroyo and that the state and Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control has been assisting in determining those efforts.
He also noted that while no specific groundwater study has been done, the groundwater is very deep here, which also helps mitigate contamination in addition to the procedures for proper cleanup of the site.
“It comes down to designing the facility and processes” to eliminate the possibility of groundwater contamination,” Kreitz said.
One study that is under way is a plume study with Sandia National Labs. Kretiz said that study is being done with the worst-case scenario in mind to help inform procedure and the way parts of the facility will be built with the preliminary indications “quite positive,” Kreitz said. “There’s good indications right now of the impact to the immediate area.”
He also noted the results of that study will be posted publicly when it is complete.
One additional concern raised by a resident was the safety of those operating off-road vehicles in the area with armed security on site.
Kretiz said that all security personnel, especially with the company contracting with federal agencies, will have to go through training and psychological evaluations similar with what police officers go through as they will need security clearance and training.
Tyler noted that he has trained armed guards for federal facilities and that guards for the Castelion facility will be held to the same standard of security measures.
He also said that as work on the facility begins, it is a chance for involved parties — including the city and the county — to participate in a public campaign to get the word out to that community, including signage with notification to stay outside the facility's fence line.
Traffic routes
The current projection for traffic in and out of the Project Ranger site is Paseo del Volcan to U.S. 550 to Interstate 25. That route, Tyler noted, runs right through his district, which is why he was interested in having a community meeting held there.
Kreitz said the trucks will look like normal semi trucks seen every day on the highways with a moderate hazardous load designation.
“Every time I hear Andrew speak, I get more and more comfortable,” Tyler said, noting that more dangerous materials are probably being delivered to the hospital along the same route (SRMC). “I’m not uncomfortable with what’s going to be on the roadways.”
One resident asked about if there was a way to limit the time frames the trucks would be coming through Rio Rancho to avoid rush hour congestion along U.S. 550 or school traffic around Cleveland High School.
Tyler noted that an ideal window for travel may be between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to “lessen stress on the community’s ability to travel,” but that it was up to Castelion to decide.
Additional questions
Residents present at Tuesday afternoon’s session asked some questions that Kreitz didn’t have an immediate answer for, taking notes down to look into them. Some of those issues included:
Preserving the dark skies status around the facility.
Mitigation to prevent silt from developing the land affecting the Rio Grande and the plant life around it.
Looking into noise pollution for residences outside city limits located closer to the facility.
“I’ve been the biggest proponent for the citizens of Rio Rancho in asking the company a lot of these questions,” Tyler said, “and the company has been responsive.”
He noted that despite a shaky start, the project is a partnership between Castelion, the city, Sandoval County and the state of New Mexico.
“We’re building this together,” he said. “We’re going to do what we can to make them succeed. Let’s welcome our new neighbors.”
