US Army backs low-cost hypersonic missile Blackbeard for HIMARS launch
The US Army is supporting Blackbeard, a ground-launched hypersonic missile from startup Castelion Corporation, designed to be cheap, scalable and compatible with the M142 HIMARS system.
Operation Sindoor highlighted that weapons traveling at several times the speed of sound can defeat sophisticated air defenses, prompting a shift toward hypersonic technology. Hypersonic glide vehicles, boosted by rockets and then gliding unpredictably, include Russia’s Avangard, China’s DF-ZF and the US Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike, while hypersonic cruise missiles remain powered throughout flight, examples being India’s BrahMos-II, France’s ASN4G, Russia’s Zircon and the US’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept.
Wars in Ukraine and Iran have underscored that speed alone is insufficient if the weapons are too expensive, forcing militaries to adopt riskier tactics. To fill this gap, the US Army is backing Blackbeard, a ground-launched hypersonic missile developed by Castelion Corporation, a startup founded by former SpaceX engineers, intended for launch from the widely used M142 HIMARS and to engage time-critical, moving targets over hundreds of miles.
The program promises a lower-cost alternative to traditional hypersonic systems, potentially enabling mass deployment in prolonged conflicts. The article suggests future efforts must balance speed, precision and affordability to avoid creating weapons that are too costly to use at scale.
Why it matters
A cheap, scalable hypersonic missile could give militaries a fast strike capability without the prohibitive costs of existing systems.
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