This week, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the headquarters of the California defense company Castelion, founded by former SpaceX engineers. The purpose of the visit was to check the progress in creating the "Blackbeard" long-range hypersonic strike missile. This was reported by Defence Blog, writes UNN.
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"Blackbeard" is a missile being developed for mass and rapid production. During the meeting with engineers, Hegseth emphasized that the development of such technologies is critically important for maintaining peace through deterrence, to force potential adversaries to abandon aggressive intentions.
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Castelion demonstrated to the Pentagon chief a modular palletized launcher that allows for rapid deployment of missiles and their integration into the existing logistics infrastructure of the US armed forces.
The main feature of the project is vertically integrated propulsion and guidance systems, which significantly reduce production costs compared to traditional defense programs. This allows the US to obtain a scalable non-nuclear deterrence option that can be produced in large volumes in a short time.
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