Part 1
What is Mondaloy and why does it matter?
The problem
High-performance rocket engines need to push hot oxygen through metal parts at extreme pressure. Hot oxygen makes most metals catch fire. Russia solved this in the 1960s. For decades, the US military launched its own spy satellites using Russian-built RD-180 engines because we couldn't make an American equivalent.
In the mid-1990s, two metallurgists at Rockwell International invented a nickel-based superalloy that could survive that environment without igniting or cracking. They called it Mondaloy — a portmanteau of Monica Jacinto and Dallis Hardwick.
After Russia cut off RD-180 servicing in March 2022 over Ukraine sanctions, Mondaloy became the material standing between the United States and a gap in its ability to put national security assets into orbit.
The technical significance
Mondaloy is used in approximately 12 components of the AR1 engine: preburner, turbine rotor, turbine housing, ducts, lines, and hot gas manifold — everything that touches oxygen-rich combustion. It can be cast, forged, and 3D-printed. Two variants exist: Mondaloy 100 and Mondaloy 200, optimised for different temperature and pressure ranges.
The AR1 program was an $804 million public-private partnership between the US Air Force, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and United Launch Alliance. It was designed to be the domestic replacement for the RD-180.
The critical fact
All three US patent applications for Mondaloy were filed between 2001 and 2009. All three were abandoned. The last one expired in December 2012. After that, the composition was technically public from expired filings, but the composition is not the recipe. The recipe is twenty years of process development — how to cast it, heat-treat it, machine it, print it, integrate it — knowledge that lived in human heads, not in any document.
Part 2
The three people who held the knowledge
One inventor. One qualifier. One funder. Together they held the complete institutional memory of how Mondaloy moved from a lab bench to a flight-qualified rocket engine component.
Monica Jacinto Reza
Dallis Hardwick
Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland
Part 3
Chronology
Key events from the invention of Mondaloy through the current disappearance cluster, including corporate transfers and institutional milestones.
Part 4
The disappearance cluster
Five senior cleared personnel from named defense institutions vanished without a trace within a 10-month window. Three share a near-identical behavioural signature.
| Name | Date | Institution | Location | Behavioural Signature | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Chavez, 78 | May 4, 2025 | LANL (retired, 30yr) | Los Alamos, NM | On footNo phoneLeft wallet/keysDaylight | Missing |
| Monica Reza, 60 | Jun 22, 2025 | Aerojet Rocketdyne / JPL | Angeles NF, CA | On foot (hiking)Companion presentNo trace | Missing |
| Melissa Casias, 53 | Jun 26, 2025 | LANL (active admin) | Taos County, NM | On footPhones leftPhones factory-reset | Missing |
| Steven Garcia, 48 | Aug 28, 2025 | KCNSC (contractor) | Albuquerque, NM | On footNo phoneLeft wallet/keysTook firearm | Missing |
| William McCasland, 68 | Feb 27, 2026 | AFRL (retired commander) | Albuquerque, NM | On footNo phoneTook firearmDaylightHiking gear | Missing |
Geographic clustering
Four of five disappearances occurred in the Albuquerque / Los Alamos / Kirtland nexus. All four New Mexico cases involve individuals connected to facilities that share classified networks: LANL, KCNSC, Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland AFB, and AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate. A source told the Daily Mail: "That entire mission runs out of Kirtland Air Force Base."
Part 5
The base-rate test
A Poisson test comparing observed disappearances against expected rates for senior cleared personnel at named defense institutions.
in 10 months
over 32 months
expected rate
Methodology note
The author explicitly flags the Texas sharpshooter problem: the cluster was noticed first, then the population boundary was drawn around it. The honest read is "this warrants investigation," not "this is proven." The assumed missing-persons rate for stably employed older professionals is 0.75 per 100,000 per year. If the true rate is 2–3× higher, the signal weakens — but arguing that senior cleared defense workers go missing at triple the normal rate is a hard case to make.
The murders in the broader list (Grillmair, Loureiro) are within statistical noise: 2 observed vs ~1.3 expected. The murders are not the anomaly. The disappearances are.
Part 6
The corporate chain of custody
Mondaloy's trade secrets have passed through seven corporate owners in thirty years. The current transaction raises specific regulatory questions.
The CFIUS gap
The L3Harris 10-K filed February 12, 2026 does not mention CFIUS — the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — in relation to the AE Industrial transaction. Not once. Not in any other SEC filing between December 2025 and March 2026.
CFIUS is the federal body that must review any foreign investment in critical American defense technology. Rocket propulsion alloys are regulated under ITAR. AE Industrial Partners is backed by unnamed sovereign wealth fund investors.
Three possible explanations: (1) CFIUS reviewed and L3Harris failed to disclose — an SEC violation. (2) The deal was structured to avoid review thresholds — technically legal but exactly what the 2018 CFIUS reform law was meant to close. (3) Nobody filed and CFIUS didn't initiate review on its own — a regulatory failure. One of these three must be true. All three are findings. Documented
Part 7
The deletion pattern
Four items discussing the Reza memorial or phone evidence were removed across four platforms by different apparent actors.
Part 8
Unanswered questions
Specific, checkable questions that could be resolved with public records, FOIA requests, or subpoena power.