# 加州小型防務新創公司Castelion獲得1.05億美元美國海軍合約，該合約將使其Blackbeard高超音速飛彈能用於海軍航母上的F/A-18戰機。

*aerospace · news · 2026-04-24 · The Straits Times*

## Key points

- Castelion獲得1.05億美元海軍合約，將Blackbeard高超音速飛彈整合至F/A-18戰機。
- Blackbeard可由航母上的F/A-18發射，攻擊陸基飛彈無法觸及的目標。
- Castelion正在新墨西哥建造一座2.5億美元的私人資金製造園區，用於飛彈生產。
- 海軍計畫在五年內為F/A-18E/F購買4,500枚類似Blackbeard的空射高超音速飛彈。
- Blackbeard的目標單位成本約為38.4萬美元，對高超音速武器而言相當低廉。

WASHINGTON, April 24 - Castelion, a small California defense startup, has won a $105 million U.S. Navy contract to ready its Blackbeard hypersonic missile for use aboard the Navy's carrier-based F/A-18 fighter jets, clearing the way for the weapon to move from the laboratory toward the battlefield next year. The award matters because the United States is expending the kinds of weapons it would need to stop China from seizing Taiwan by force. Unlike a ballistic missile fired from land, Blackbeard can be carried aboard a Navy aircraft carrier and launched from an F/A-18 — a jet flying off a carrier deck — putting the weapon within striking range of Chinese missile sites and warships that a land-based weapon could not easily reach. Because Blackbeard travels faster than five times the speed of sound and is designed to be cheap enough to buy in large numbers, the United States could use it to make a Chinese military commander think twice before ordering an attack. "The most sacred targets in our engineering process are schedule and affordability. That forces more creative solutions - instead of waiting 52 weeks for a space-rated computer, we use automotive-grade components backed by tens of billions in commercial investment annually, and they work," Sean Pitt, Castelion's co-founder and chief operating officer, told Reuters. The Navy contract will fund hardware and software integration of Blackbeard onto the F/A-18, flight testing, and the full system safety and airworthiness certification the military requires before a weapon can be cleared for storage, loading and carriage from an aircraft carrier at sea — the last major hurdle before the Navy decides whether to buy Blackbeard in volume for the carrier air wing. Castelion expects to clear that hurdle and have weapons ready for fielding next year. To support anticipated production orders, Castelion has privately funded Project Ranger, a manufacturing campus being built entirely with company money at a cost the company puts at $250 million. The company already operates facilities across Texas, California and Washington, and when fully operational the New Mexico campus will be capable of producing thousands of Blackbeard missiles annually, with that capacity expected to be in place by the end of next year. Pentagon budget documents released this week show the Navy plans to buy 4,500 air-launched hypersonic missiles for F/A-18E/Fs over the next five years, with an average unit cost of about $384,000 — a relatively low figure for hypersonic-class weapons. Castelion's contract award was posted to the government's awards database on Friday. REUTERS

**Companies:** Castelion
**Countries:** United States

[Read the full story on The Straits Times](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/hypersonic-weapon-startup-castelion-wins-105-million-navy-contract-for-f/a-18-integration)

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