# 加州防務新創公司贏得1.05億美元美國海軍合約。

*aerospace · news · 2026-04-24 · U.S. News & World Report*

## Key points

- Castelion獲得1.05億美元美國海軍合約，將Blackbeard高超音速飛彈整合至F/A-18戰機。
- Blackbeard可由航艦上的F/A-18發射，攻擊先前陸基飛彈無法觸及的目標。
- Castelion正在新墨西哥建造Project Ranger，一個全公司自籌資金的2.5億美元製造園區。
- 海軍計畫在五年內購買4,500枚空射高超音速飛彈，用於F/A-18E/F，單價為38.4萬美元。
- Blackbeard採用汽車級元件以降低成本並加速生產，優於標準軍用硬體。

By Mike Stone WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - 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. (Reporting ​by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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

[Read the full story on U.S. News & World Report](https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-24/hypersonic-weapon-startup-castelion-wins-105-million-navy-contract-for-f-a-18-integration)

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