Castelion announced today that the U.S. Navy awarded $49,998,005 to advance Blackbeard from prototype to integrated, early operational capability. Work will be performed in Torrance, California and is expected to be completed in November 2027. The Blackbeard contract award supports the U.S. Navy’s strategy to pursue new approaches to quickly move capability to the Fleet while maintaining operational rigor.

Blackbeard, Castelion’s first product, is engineered for mass production and rapid fielding from inception. The system leverages vertically integrated propulsion and guidance subsystems to achieve performance at a fraction of the cost of legacy weapons, supporting the Department of War’s objective of building credible, nonnuclear deterrent capacity at scale.