Defense startup Castelion has received a $23.4 million US Navy contract to produce and deliver 50 Blackbeard hypersonic missile prototypes and 50 associated storage and shipping containers. The award represents a key step in moving the Blackbeard program from testing and development toward operational production.

Production will take place primarily at Castelion’s Project Ranger manufacturing campus in Rio Rancho, with additional work in Torrance, and is expected to be completed in 2027. The company says Blackbeard is designed as a low-cost, highly manufacturable long-range hypersonic strike weapon intended to strengthen US conventional deterrence.

The contract follows earlier Army and Navy integration agreements and builds on Castelion’s investment of more than $250 million in its New Mexico production facilities, aimed at scaling hypersonic weapons manufacturing.