Blackbeard Hypersonic Missiles Test-Loaded on F/A-18; Navy Targets August 2028 Operational Entry
Blackbeard's imaging infrared seeker (inferred from nose aperture design) trades acquisition range for jamming immunity — a bet that Chinese and Iranian ship defenses will prioritize electronic warfare over kinetic countermeasures. If that bet is wrong, the Navy has built a slow, expensive target for air-defense systems that suppress radar returns.
The real constraint is not the missile; it's whether Super Hornets can survive to launch range in a peer conflict. If they cannot, Blackbeard becomes a standoff weapon for low-threat environments — useful against Iranian fast-attack craft in the Hormuz blockade, irrelevant against a peer navy.
The Navy is compressing a hypersonic strike capability into the existing Super Hornet fleet two years faster than legacy air-to-ship missiles matured, which forces a choice: accept higher risk in combat employment or delay the August 2028 IOC and cede the anti-ship role to unmanned platforms for another cycle.
Castelion received $105 million in April for F/A-18 integration; test-loading confirms the airframe modification is real, not a concept. Watch whether the Navy publishes actual flight-test data by Q4 2026 — silence past that date signals the seeker or guidance system hit a wall.
Has Blackbeard actually flown, or is the August 2028 IOC target a schedule-driven fiction? The Tailhook briefing slide says 'Hypersonic missile shot in 2026' but does not confirm the test occurred.
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