US Navy awards Castelion first order for Blackbeard hypersonic weapon

Californian company Castelion has been awarded a US$23.4 million ($33.3 million) firm-fixed-price order from the US Navy for the production and delivery of 50 Blackbeard hypersonic missile, to be completed by 2027. The contract covers early operational capability pre-production prototypes and 50 associated storage and shipping containers, said Castelion in a media release. 

The contract follows a US$49 million ($70 million) contract from the US Navy in February followed by a US$105 million ($150 million) contract in April to move Blackbeard from prototype to production, continue integrating it onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and transition the system to an Early Operational Capability in 2027.

Blackbeard is the first US hypersonic system engineered from inception for industrial-rate output, commercial unit cost, and continuous flight test iteration, says Castelion which says it builds rapid, affordable, and scalable advanced strike weapons.

“Blackbeard was designed from the beginning to support our nation’s conventional deterrence,” said Bryon Hargis, Co-Founder and CEO of Castelion. “This award reflects the Navy’s continued commitment to and leadership in rapidly advancing affordable, manufacturable long-range strike capability and moving Blackbeard toward early operational use.” 

The order supports continued maturation of Castelion’s low-cost, highly manufacturable long-range hypersonic strike weapons and will exercise the company’s expanding production capacity at its Project Ranger manufacturing campus in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. 

This award builds on a series of Army and Navy platform integration contracts and follows Castelion’s US$250+ million ($355 million) investment in Project Ranger, a 1,000-acre manufacturing campus in New Mexico built for hypersonic production at scale.