U.S. Navy orders Blackbeard hypersonic missiles in $200M deal

The U.S. Navy has ordered production rounds of Castelion’s Blackbeard hypersonic strike weapon in a deal worth up to $200 million, the company announced Sept. 14, 2026. The delivery order covers an initial production lot of the missile and follows a separate June order for 50 early prototype rounds.

The new contract came from Portfolio Acquisition Executive Aviation, through its Future Capability Development and Integration Aviation Rapid Capabilities Cell, and moves Blackbeard out of prototype status and into an initial production run for the fleet.

Blackbeard is an air-launched hypersonic weapon built to strike targets on land or at sea from long range. The Navy plans to carry it on carrier-based aircraft, giving naval air wings a fast, high-speed strike option that adds more weapons to a carrier’s overall magazine without adding more launch platforms.

The order builds on a June 16, 2026, contract in which the Navy paid Castelion $23.4 million for 50 Blackbeard prototypes, known as Early Operational Capability rounds, along with 50 storage and shipping containers. That earlier deal was issued under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III agreement and was billed at the time as the Navy’s first delivery order for the weapon. Castelion has said that work is due to wrap up in 2027.

“The Navy’s decision to move into production reflects its confidence in the Blackbeard program, and the progress we’ve made together,” said Bryon Hargis, co-founder and CEO of Castelion. “That’s how you get capability to the fleet fast, clear red tape, and partner with industry. We are grateful to PAE(A) for the trust and the urgency. Blackbeard was engineered from day one for the production line and we look forward to delivering this capability to the fleet.”

Castelion has not disclosed how many production rounds the new $200 million ceiling will buy, and the company’s announcement did not include a delivery date for the production lot.

The Blackbeard program has moved quickly since Castelion won its first Navy contracts. In October 2025, the company secured awards to integrate the weapon onto multiple aircraft platforms. Those contracts included work to adapt Blackbeard for carriage on the F/A-18 Super Hornet, covering hardware and software integration, flight testing, and the safety and airworthiness certification the Navy requires before clearing a weapon for storage and use aboard an aircraft carrier.

Castelion has said it has put hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment into Blackbeard, developed in partnership with the Navy, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. The company has built its production approach around vertical integration and commercial manufacturing techniques, aiming to control cost, quality and schedule across the supply chain rather than relying heavily on outside subcontractors.

Much of that production capacity centers on Project Ranger, a 1,000-acre manufacturing campus the company has built in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, at a cost Castelion has put at more than $250 million. Work under the new delivery order will be split between Project Ranger and Castelion’s original facility in Torrance, California, where the company is headquartered.

Castelion describes Blackbeard as the first U.S. hypersonic weapon designed from the start for industrial-scale production, commercial-level unit costs and continuous flight testing, a break from hypersonic programs that have historically relied on smaller-batch, higher-cost manufacturing. The company has not released a unit cost for the weapon or specified how many rounds it expects to deliver under the new order.

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