Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles
Appendix 4: Undesignated Vehicles
Blackbeard
Copyright © 2026 Andreas Parsch

Castelion Blackbeard

The Blackbeard missile is a hypersonic strike weapon developed by Castelion since around 2024. By 2025, Castelion had received a U.S. Army contract for integrating a ground-launched variant of the missile with the forthcoming CAML (Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher) as well as the existing HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) launch platforms.

In April 2026, the U.S. Navy announced that it had selected an air-launched Blackbeard variant as winner of its MACE (Multi-mission Affordable Capacity Effector) requirement. MACE has been issued in February 2024, and calls for a comparatively low-cost air-launched missile to be used by the F/A-18E/F and F-35A/C. The latter platform is to carry up to 4 MACE rounds in its internal weapons bay. MACE is to be employed against stationary and moving targets. An initial contract for 50 pre-production Blackbeard missiles for EOC (Early Operational Capability) in June 2026 was followed by a production contract in August that year.

Blackbeard
Photo: Castelion
Blackbeard


Public information about Blackbeard's physical characteristics, performance data and internal technology is limited. The air-launched version appears to be a rocket-powered boost-glide design of roughly the size of an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. Castelion's SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contracts seem to indicate, that the missile is equipped with an AESA radar terminal seeker called KARMA (Ku-band Affordable Resiliently Manufactured AESA) and a novel warhead called CHyMERA (Compact Hypersonic Missile/Effector Reactive Material). CHyMERA uses advanced materials to provide both fragmentation and blast/incendiary effects with less payload mass than more conventional warheads, presumably leveraging the missile's very high impact speed.

Specifications

No details about the characteristics of the Blackbeard are available.

Main Sources

[1] Castelion: News Releases
[2] The War Zone, Joseph Trevithick: Blackbeard 'Cheap' Hypersonic Strike Missile Being Developed For U.S. Army, June 2025
[3] Naval News, Ethan Grossrow: MACE to Become U.S. Navy’s Primary Hypersonic Strike Munition, April 2026
[4] SBIR Website: Ku-Band Affordable Resiliently Manufactured AESA (KARMA)
[5] SBIR Website: Compact Hypersonic Missile/Effector Reactive Material (CHyMERA) Warhead Prototype & Demonstration


Back to Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4




Last Updated: 16 September 2026