Castelion, a startup founded by former SpaceX engineers, displayed its Blackbeard hypersonic weapon and said it has secured $1 billion in financing to begin production, aiming for fielding in 2027.

Hypersonic weapons travel at speeds above Mach 5 and have been expensive to develop. The Pentagon plans to acquire at least 10,000 Blackbeard missiles and an equal number of lower‑cost cruise missiles over the next three years.

The weapon combines a ballistic‑missile‑type booster with an unpowered hypersonic glide vehicle, using cruciform fins and a chined nose. Test flights in 2025 and 2026 have validated vertically integrated subsystems from new suppliers. Castelion said the design was created to be less costly and easier to mass‑produce than traditional high‑end missiles.

The $1 billion round, valued at about $13 billion, includes $800 million in equity and $250 million in committed financing. In addition, the company has obtained more than $500 million in U.S. military contracts over the past 18 months, including a Navy contract to integrate Blackbeard onto F/A‑18E/F Super Hornets and an Army interest in a ground‑launched version.

Castelion’s Project Ranger campus in Sandoval County, New Mexico, occupies roughly 1,000 acres and is the largest dedicated hypersonic missile manufacturing site in the United States. The firm has committed over $250 million to the site and plans further investment to expand capacity, emphasizing large‑scale production.

The company says it will use the new funds to transition from development and flight testing to high‑volume manufacturing. Whether the approach can sustain the production rates promised remains to be seen.