Rangeview wins Kratos turbine-engine work for flight-quality superalloy castings

Why it matters

Rangeview is testing whether robotics and digital tooling can expand domestic superalloy casting capacity. Kratos gives it a path from process development to flight hardware.

Cameron Schiller (@cameron62s), founder and CEO of Rangeview, announced Thursday that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions selected the El Segundo manufacturer to develop and deliver flight-quality cast superalloy hardware for advanced turbine engines.

Schiller disclosed the partnership in a post on X, linking to Rangeview's July 30th announcement. The work is a funded development effort, according to Rangeview, and targets components that the Department of Defense has identified as a gap in the domestic casting base.

The selection gives Schiller and co-founder Aeden Gasser-Brennan a flight-hardware program for the manufacturing thesis they have pursued since Rangeview's early days: rebuilding investment casting with robotics, software, digital tooling and additive manufacturing for ceramic molds.

Schiller arrived at that thesis through robotics. He has described growing up with Lego projects and competitive VEX systems, winning a world championship as a high-school freshman and later spending time inside Chinese consumer-electronics factories. His first plan was to sell robots to established foundries. Buyers resisted, so he and Gasser-Brennan decided to build a foundry themselves, Schiller recounted in a recent podcast interview.

Gasser-Brennan, Rangeview's CTO, studied mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley and worked on Formula SAE vehicle dynamics and applied fluid dynamics. TenOneTen Ventures, which says it partnered with Rangeview in 2022, describes the founders' technology as a combination of investment casting and 3D printing intended to reduce production costs and improve manufacturing efficiency.

Rangeview's process is aimed at the gap between traditional casting and direct metal additive manufacturing. Kratos Chief Engineer Russ Jones said in the announcement that Rangeview can produce complex geometries that might otherwise require laser powder-bed additive manufacturing while retaining the material properties of high-capability cast superalloys. That distinction matters in turbine hardware, where geometry, temperature tolerance and repeatable material performance constrain which production process can be used.

Schiller framed the Kratos work as a capacity problem. "The industry needs new casting capacity and a new generation of suppliers to deliver it," he said in the announcement. Rangeview says it is building rapid development and scalable production for aerospace, defense and energy customers.

Kratos is preparing for higher engine output

The partnership arrives during a production expansion at Kratos. On June 9th, Kratos announced plans to increase production of its Spartan turbojet engines for missile and loitering-munition programs. Kratos also announced in 2025 that it planned to open a 50,000-square-foot engine facility in Bristow, Oklahoma, with room to expand to 100,000 square feet and accommodate as many as five production lines.

Stacey Rock, president of Kratos' Turbine Technologies Division, said the Rangeview agreement is part of Kratos' effort to secure suppliers as it prepares for higher-volume production of engines for drones and missiles. The immediate deliverable is development hardware, but the commercial value for Rangeview rests in converting that work into repeatable production as Kratos increases output.

Rangeview has also used federal funding to move its casting process toward production. The federal SBIR award database lists a $1,427,661 Air Force Phase II award for Rangeview's digital investment-casting technology. The project, led by Gasser-Brennan as principal investigator, began on September 25th, 2025 and is scheduled to run through December 28th, 2026. Its stated work includes improving casting quality and material efficiency, then incorporating those changes into Rangeview's production line.

Rangeview's known financing combines seed investors and government development funding. CB Insights records $200,000 raised across three rounds and identifies Berkeley SkyDeck, Marque Ventures, TenOneTen, Pathbreaker Ventures, Calibrate Ventures and Shield Capital among Rangeview's backers. Pathbreaker Ventures separately lists Rangeview alongside Calibrate, Shield and TenOneTen.

The Kratos program moves Rangeview into the part of hard-tech manufacturing where process improvements face their real test. Rangeview must turn faster tooling and automated foundry operations into qualified superalloy components that meet flight requirements, then show that the same system can support the production volumes Kratos is planning.