This award is significant as the United States is investing in the types of weapons necessary to deter China from attempting to take Taiwan by force. Unlike traditional land-launched ballistic missiles, Blackbeard can be transported aboard a Navy aircraft carrier and launched from an F/A-18, placing it within striking distance of Chinese missile installations and naval forces that a ground-based system could struggle to reach.
With speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound and a design aimed at affordability for mass production, Blackbeard offers the potential to make a Chinese military leader reconsider the decision to initiate an attack.
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“The most critical aspects of our engineering approach are schedule and cost-effectiveness. This drives us to develop more innovative solutions – rather than waiting 52 weeks for a space-rated computer, we utilize automotive-grade components that receive annual commercial investments totaling tens of billions, and they perform,” stated Sean Pitt, co-founder and COO of Castelion, in an interview with Reuters.
The Navy contract will cover the hardware and software integration of Blackbeard onto the F/A-18, conduct flight tests, and complete the full system safety and airworthiness certification required before a weapon is authorized for storage, loading, and transport from an aircraft carrier at sea. This represents the final significant obstacle before the Navy can decide on a bulk purchase of Blackbeard for its carrier air wing. Castelion aims to overcome this challenge and have the weapons ready for deployment next year.
To accommodate expected production demands, Castelion has initiated Project Ranger, a manufacturing campus entirely funded with company resources at an estimated cost of $250 million. The company currently operates facilities across Texas, California, and Washington, and once fully operational, the New Mexico campus will have the capability to produce thousands of Blackbeard missiles annually, with that capacity anticipated to be established by the end of next year.
Recent Pentagon budget documents indicate that the Navy plans to procure 4,500 air-launched hypersonic missiles for the F/A-18E/F aircraft over the next five years, with an average unit cost of approximately $384,000 — a relatively economical figure for hypersonic-class weapons.
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The contract award for Castelion was made public in the government’s awards database on Friday.
