Tucked away behind a giant Chevron refinery and wedged into LAX’s exhaust plume, El Segundo is quietly becoming one of America’s most important addresses. A new generation of engineers, tinkerers, and tech rebels is reshaping this sleepy industrial town into a launchpad for America’s new right-leaning hard-tech movement.
It’s not flashy. No shiny campuses or vegan cafeterias here. Just low-slung warehouses, the whir of 3D printers, and people who are more into flight dynamics than funding rounds. Yet what’s happening in El Segundo could rewrite the rules of global power.
The Great American Factory Reboot
Once upon a time, American prosperity was built with calloused hands and factory floors. Post-WWII, this was the land of steel, jet engines, and Moon landings. But somewhere along the way, it traded soldering irons for selfies. That’s changing.
Rangeview Corporation is a perfect example. Led by Cameron Schiller, a scrappy operator with the grit of a machinist and the mission of a patriot, his company uses advanced 3D casting tech to forge aerospace parts.
“We’re not playing catch-up,” Schiller says, dust on his boots. “We’re building the future the right way.”
What he means is: hardware, not hype.
• Drones, satellites, propulsion systems — these aren’t app store updates.
• Companies in “Gundo” are working with molten alloys, not meme coins.
• And they’re drawing talent away from old-school defense primes like Lockheed.
Why El Segundo, Why Now?
Let’s be real. Nobody saw this coming.
El Segundo’s got just 17,000 residents, most of them indifferent to the aerospace renaissance taking shape around them. But during the day, the place swells to over 50,000 as engineers, welders, and systems architects descend.
Why here?
– Proximity to LAX
– Cheap industrial real estate
– Legacy infrastructure from the Cold War
– And maybe, just maybe, the smell of rebellion in the air
From the ashes of defense consolidation in the 1990s, El Segundo is tapping into that same defiant energy that built Silicon Valley — before it got obsessed with dopamine loops and cancel culture.
The Politics Behind the Propulsion
This isn’t just an economic revival. It’s ideological.
Hard-tech isn’t just coming from the right — it’s becoming a kind of conservative counterpunch to Silicon Valley’s cultural dominance. Fed up with censorship, woke capital, and “virtual everything,” a certain slice of the American right is putting its money into steel, satellites, and Starlink competitors.
Peter Thiel was early to this game. Elon Musk, love him or hate him, has reshaped how conservatives view space and defense. The culture wars have bled into orbit.
And these startups? They don’t just want funding. They want freedom — from regulation, from ESG mandates, from bureaucracy.
At a recent closed-door event in San Diego, one founder bluntly said, “We’re not building the next Google. We’re building the next Northrop — without the dead weight.”
The Shadow of China: A Clear and Present Driver
None of this happens in a vacuum. China’s aggressive space program looms large.
In 2024 alone, China launched over 60 space missions. Its state-backed behemoths now rival — and in some cases outperform — their American counterparts. The PLA’s fusion of military and commercial tech isn’t just strategic; it’s existential for U.S. dominance.
Not relying on Boeing, that’s for sure. NASA’s Artemis program is years behind schedule. But in these nimble startups, the U.S. may finally have a fighting chance.
The gap is still real. But the tide may be turning.
Who’s Building What?
The list of companies might not be household names, but they’re worth watching. Here are just a few elbowing their way into relevance:
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Hadrian: Automating aerospace manufacturing with robotics that feel like science fiction
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Relativity Space: Launching rockets printed entirely with 3D tech
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Varda Space Industries: Making microgravity manufacturing a reality
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Anduril: Building next-gen defense systems with Silicon Valley speed
Each of them brings something different to the table — speed, risk tolerance, agility. And most of them are hoovering up talent from legacy contractors by offering better pay and fewer PowerPoints.
One Anduril employee said: “At my old job, it took 18 months to get approval for a bolt redesign. Here, it’s three Slack messages.”
The Roadblocks Ahead
Of course, it’s not all booster rockets and good vibes.
Plenty of these firms are still at the pre-revenue stage. Scaling hardware is brutal — and expensive. A single failed launch can vaporize months of work and millions of dollars.
There’s also the labor issue. As much as El Segundo is buzzing, skilled machinists and systems engineers don’t grow on trees. And while the right-wing energy is fueling passion, it can also alienate more moderate or progressive investors.
And let’s not forget — there’s still an old guard. Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon… they aren’t going down quietly. They’ve got lobbyists, lawyers, and long-term contracts. Some of these startups might get swallowed before they ever get airborne.
Still, something feels different this time. More raw. More determined. Like a Sputnik moment, but made in a machine shop in south LA.
