Begun, the drone wars have. But, not in the way you’ve seen in Ukraine and Iran. Quadcopters and unmanned ground vehicles are useful at the small unit level and kamikaze drone boats can empower small navies, but the United States Navy is looking beyond that.
What if we took a surface warship with hypersonic missiles and removed the crew? Just propulsion and weapon systems. That’s what the Navy wants to try.
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On June 16, 2026, Castelion announced a $23.4 million order from the Navy for 50 of its Blackbeard hypersonic weapons. Two months earlier, Castelion was awarded a different $105 million contract to equip F/A-18 Hornets with Blackbeard hypersonics. Although the missiles are early, pre-production types, they do have operational capability.
Moreover, the order marks the Navy’s first delivery of a low-cost hypersonic strike weapon. After all, in a shooting war, you want to be able to shoot for cheap.
“Blackbeard was designed from the beginning to support our nation’s conventional deterrence,” said Castelion Co-Founder and CEO Bryon Hargis in a press release. “This award reflects the Navy’s continued commitment to and leadership in rapidly advancing affordable, manufacturable long-range strike capability, and moving Blackbeard toward early operational use.”
Of course, if the Navy wants to shoot hypersonics, it needs a platform to shoot them from. Enter Saronic.
Founded in late 2022 like Castelion, Saronic developed the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) Marauder, but this isn’t some remote-controlled toy boat.
The Marauder measures 180 feet long and features a max payload of 150 metric tons. Configured to carry its payload in shipping containers, the Marauder is modular and optimized for Blackbeard. Castelion and Saronic have announced plans to integrate Blackbeard with the Marauder for a first-of-its-kind demonstration.
“Launching a Castelion hypersonic from a Marauder MUSV significantly changes the approach for any adversary calculating where and how the U.S. can strike,” said Saronic Co-Founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas in a press release. “Deterrence is ultimately a function of capability, capacity, and credibility. Saronic and Castelion are working to increase all three by combining autonomous maritime and hypersonic strike capabilities that are more scalable, more affordable, and faster to field.”
The Navy has always been about projecting American strength via the sea. With a hypersonic-capable MUSV, commanders at sea will be able to carry out that mission more effectively and with reduced risk to the lives of their sailors. Castelion and Saronic are aiming for a demonstration in 2027.
That said, great systems mean nothing if they can’t be delivered to the Navy at scale. To that end, Castelion established its $250 million, 1,000-acre hypersonic manufacturing in New Mexico to achieve a production capacity of thousands of Blackbeards annually.
Similarly, Saronic is working on a $300 million shipyard expansion in Louisiana to add 300,000 sq. ft. of production capacity by the end of 2026 to deliver 20 Marauders annually.
Remember, don’t touch America’s boats.
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