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Request for Information (RFI) Multi-Mission Affordable Capacity Effector (MACE) Weapon System​

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Ku-Band Affordable Resiliently Manufactured AESA (KARMA)

Castelion’s proposed Ku-band Affordable Resiliently Manufactured AESA (KARMA) starts where other SBIR efforts finish – with a proof-of-concept demonstration of a low-cost seeker designed for our 7in hypersonic missile. With KARMA, Castelion takes a page from Freedom’s Forge to design a seeker using commercial suppliers vs. commercial parts. By tapping into the automotive electronics market, we enter a highly competitive and fairly standardized marketplace. Use of standard industry “plug-and-play” sizes results in a seeker that is about 30% larger than its purely defense-industry counterparts, but dramatically lowers supply-chain risk and reduces cost. In this effort, Castelion leverages its ready-to-build 7-in seeker design to demonstrate functionality of the commercial-grade components and put it through a series of tests, including near-field chamber, far-field chamber, and thermal performance testing. Then, over the course of a 20-month period of performance, Castelion will identify the key requirements necessary for a “low-cost, multi-function radar system for attritable airborne platforms” and adapt the design to meet the SWaP and cost constraints outlined in topic AF244-D010. We are currently estimating that a 25% reduction in elements will allow us to meet performance, SWaP, and cost constraints, while maintaining the rest of the design. The effort will also include SAR data collection, algorithm development, and data link development. These additional steps will allow Castelion to fully model the performance of the seeker hardware. KARMA leverages technology developed under DARPA’s Shared Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications (SSPARC) program which allows coordination and communications between weapons simultaneously with radar operation. Castelion will test this capability with waveforms that include such modulations and demonstrate the radar-scene-radar communication path.
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Compact Hypersonic Missile/Effector Reactive Material (CHyMERA) Warhead Prototype & Demonstration

Castelion’s Compact Hypersonic Missile/Effector Reactive Material (CHyMERA) Warhead Prototype & Demonstration, developed in close cooperation with MATSYS, will prototype and test a new type of warhead – showcasing the effectiveness of reactive material warheads for hypersonic weapons. The use of a reactive material warhead provides dual benefits to the platform. These multifunctional warheads allow for its advanced structural case material to provide (a) kinetic defeat mechanisms upon fragmentation and engagement with the target, and (b) highly energetic incendiary and blast events upon breakup of each frag within target due to the extremely rapid combustion of the reactive material alloy. These combined effects provide unmatched target defeat at a smaller payload than traditional warheads. This makes it ideal for the new class of “affordable mass” weapons that are being sought by the Government. CHyMERA is being developed for Castelion’s Blackbeard family of hypersonic weapons which requires a compact, but high performing, warhead that can be accommodated in the common 7-in diameter kill vehicle. This Direct-to-Phase 2 (DP2) effort will prototype the CHyMERA warhead and demonstrate its effectiveness in an arena test against a Castelion-built solid rocket motor (SRM). With novel threats emerging, such as hypersonic vehicles, there is an urgent need for payloads offering multiple defeat mechanisms, such as those offered by high density reactive materials (HDRM) warheads. The proposed effort will demonstrate CHyMERA’s effectiveness against specific components of “live” target surrogates. This research is critically needed to support MDA’s missile defense mandate. The proposed demonstration provides MDA with valuable insights into the expected damage created by a reactive materials warhead against an incoming hypersonic missile threat. It also advances Castelion’s Blackbeard missile line – which can be used as an offensive or defensive weapon – by not only maturing the warhead subsystem, but by beginning insensitive munitions testing of our SRM design.
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On April 5, 2025, Castelion received a $1.39 million Phase II award for an advanced radar system. In May 2025, the company was selected for an AFWERX Strategic Funding Increase, aligning approximately $15 million in Air Force SBIR funding with $30 million in private investment and additional government funding to support transition from prototype to operational use. Across the STRATFI portfolio, 63.5% of supported companies have transitioned to Phase III.
Capabilities developed through these efforts informed the design and manufacturability of Castelion’s hypersonic missile system, which is undergoing integration with Army and Navy platforms. Government-coordinated testing included prototype vehicle launches at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, on Nov. 6, 2025, and at San Nicolas Island within the Point Mugu Sea Range, California, on Dec. 5, 2025, to collect performance data under operationally relevant conditions.
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Boeing Contracted for Beowulf MFA Development and Integration

Boeing has been funded by NAVAIR for engineering and test assets to support of the design, development, and integration of the AN/ALQ-264(V) Beowulf upgrade to the US Navy’s EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack platform.
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As part of the Growler Block II Phase II upgrade, the AN/ALQ-264(V) Beowulf modification introduces an advanced Multi-Function Array (MFA) in the inboard leading edge flaps to augment the functionality and capability of the existing AN/ALQ-218 receiver. Northrop Grumman (Baltimore, Md.) has developed the Beowulf MFA. The MFA also serves as technology development and risk reduction for the incorporation of MFAs on multiple future platforms.
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Implementing a so-called Reactive Electronic Attack Measures (REAM) capability, the NGEAU provides a capability that enhances the EA-18G’s ability to autonomously process and respond to unknown signals in an extremely dense electromagnetic spectrum environment. REAM exploits advanced machine learning algorithms to enable effects against agile, adaptive, and unknown hostile radars or radar modes.
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U.S. Navy Commissions Flight III Destroyer USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128) in Alaska​

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U.S. Navy Commissions Flight III Destroyer USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128) in Alaska - Naval News

The U.S. Navy has officially commissioned the USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), its newest Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer equipped with the SPY-6 radar and Aegis Baseline 10, during a ceremony in Whittier, Alaska. US Navy press release The U.S. Navy placed its newest Flight III...
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Troublemaker Revealed For U.S. Navy One-Way Attack Arsenal | Aviation Week
North Dakota-based Ideal Aerosmith revealed Oct. 7 the one-way attack Troublemaker uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) now in low-rate initial production for the U.S. Navy.

The company specialized for decades in simulation and test instrumentation work but recently stood up a division to develop a new class of low-cost, long-range and mass-manufacturable UAS for strike and reconnaissance roles.

The initial production of Troublemaker for an undisclosed Navy end user currently runs at a rate of two deliveries per week, but Ideal is preparing to ramp up significantly.

“As we hope some of these contracts matriculate, we can scale that up to several thousand a year,” said David Markert, senior vice president of government systems at Ideal.


In addition to the Navy order, Markert named the U.S. Army’s Long-Range Launched Effects program and the U.S. Air Force’s Ground-Based Affordable Mass challenge as opportunities to win more orders.

Ideal’s scale-up strategy includes vertically integrated assembly, including the propulsion system, Markert said.

The 110-lb. Troublemaker comes with a 15.19-ft. wingspan and carries a 30-lb. payload at ranges beyond 750 nm. The UAS is launched by a catapult or from a moving vehicle, and, if necessary, can be recovered using a landing skid.

But Ideal plans to develop a family of larger one-way attack munitions, including a jet-powered version.

“We’re using a small internal combustion engine [now]. Future drones will have bigger internal combustion [engines], and we’re going to a turbine drone at some point in the future as well,” Markert said.

The Troublemaker family features a unique control system that allows one operator to control multiple and potentially dozens of drones at the same time, Markert said.

That one-to-many control philosophy is how Ideal intends to set the Troublemaker UAS family apart in what is becoming a crowded market for one-way attack systems.

“One-to-many is the ethos of the platform and kind of holistically how we treat ourselves differently in the one-way attack marketplace,” said Shane Brady, Ideal’s vice president of Advanced Programs.
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U.S. Army Opens Depots To Drone Part Production To Fill Massive Demand | Aviation Week
Excerpt:
Attempting to build 10 million drones is an enormous undertaking, Jon Strzelec, U.S. Army Materiel Command’s advanced manufacturing lead for small uncrewed air systems, tells Aviation Week. “That’s five circuit cards per drone, so it’s 50 million circuit cards,” Strzelec says. “You’re talking four motors per drone—that’s 40 million motors, 40 million propellers, 10 million frames.”

Faced with those daunting numbers, the Pentagon has ordered a half-dozen army depots that are typically used for maintenance, repair and overhaul of aging military equipment to jump into the fray and start manufacturing drone components.


Depots are being retooled with additional manufacturing equipment to produce brushless DC motors, propellers, frames, circuit cards, battery packs and other drone subcomponents, Strzelec says.

For example, one facility that repaired out-of-production radios has been revamped to support electronics for uncrewed air vehicles (UAV). “If they can make and produce circuit cards for an Army radio or a radar, why couldn’t they do it for a system on a drone?” Strzelec notes.

Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania opened a brushless DC motor assembly line this summer. The depot has the capacity to scale production to upward of 500,000 motors annually, the service says.

Strzelec declines to state production goals for the initiative, citing operational security concerns. The drone effort is part of a larger $18.1 billion modernization plan aimed at transforming the U.S. Army’s Organic Industrial Base, the service-owned complex of 23 depots, arsenals and ammunition plants.
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