Navy Awards Castelion Up to $200M Blackbeard Hypersonic Missile Production Order

Navy Places Blackbeard Production Order

The U.S. Navy has awarded Castelion a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III production delivery order valued at up to $200 million for the Blackbeard hypersonic missile.

Under the order, Castelion will manufacture, assemble, test, and deliver an initial lot of Blackbeard Hypersonic Weapon All-Up Rounds for naval aviation. The Navy and company releases did not specify the number of production rounds, delivery schedule, or unit price.

The production weapons will follow 50 Early Operational Capability rounds ordered in June 2026, according to Castelion. The latest order moves the program from early operational capability prototypes into production.

Air-Launched Strike Role

Blackbeard is an air-launched hypersonic weapon intended to provide carrier-based strike fighters with a long-range, high-speed strike option against maritime and land targets. The Navy said the weapon is designed to extend the reach of carrier strike groups, increase available magazine capacity, and improve aircraft survivability against advanced air defenses.

The program builds on previous U.S. Army and Navy platform-integration contracts. The releases did not identify specific aircraft, integration schedules, or planned dates for operational deployment.

Vice Adm. John “Doc” Dougherty IV, commander of Portfolio Acquisition Executive Aviation and Naval Air Systems Command, said the award pairs the Navy’s rapid-acquisition structure with commercial manufacturing practices to expand naval aviation’s strike capacity.

Acquisition and Testing Approach

Portfolio Acquisition Executive Aviation issued the order through its Future Capability Development and Integration Aviation Rapid Capabilities Cell. The cell is part of an acquisition structure in which embedded rapid-capability organizations develop and transition scalable prototypes.

The Navy described the award as an early use of rapid-acquisition initiatives supported by the Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office. It also cited acquisition reforms in the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act and authorities under the Small Business Innovation Development Act as the basis for transitioning privately financed technology directly into production.

According to the Navy, this structure is intended to limit duplicated non-recurring engineering work and shorten the transition between development and manufacturing.

Blackbeard’s test program will use mission-engineering processes and specialized testing software to support flight-clearance and safety requirements. No flight-test results or certification timeline were included in the releases.

Manufacturing Locations

Work will take place at Castelion’s Project Ranger manufacturing campus in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and at the company’s facility in Torrance, California. Project Ranger covers approximately 1,000 acres.

Castelion said its production plan combines vertically integrated operations with commercial manufacturing methods, covering activities from raw materials through finished rounds. The company has funded Blackbeard with hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment while working with the Navy, Army and Air Force, according to its release.

Program Transition

Castelion co-founder and CEO Bryon Hargis said the production decision followed progress made jointly with the Navy and that Blackbeard was designed with production requirements in mind.

The Navy linked the award to its broader objective of obtaining lower-cost munitions in larger quantities and improving strike options in contested maritime areas. The releases did not provide the order’s maximum period of performance or indicate whether additional production lots are planned.