The US’ rising defence start-up, Anduril, has unveiled a new family of Autonomous Air Vehicles (AAVs) named the Barracuda, which it says will provide the Armed Forces with high production rates at a time of intense demand for missiles.
Barracuda is an air-breathing, software-defined AAV that the company designed for affordable, hyper-scale production.
It offers more than 500 nautical miles of range, more than 100 pounds of payload capacity, manoeuvrability and more than 120 minutes of loitering time.
The Barracuda family comprises the Baracuda-100, Barracuda-250 and Barracuda-500 – each increment provides increasing size, range and payload capacity, while all of them are compatible with various types of payload, support a variety of missions and are adaptable against evolving threats.
Growing demand for missiles
“The United States and our allies and partners do not have enough missiles to credibly deter conflict,” the California-based supplier identified in its pitch.
The global missiles and missile defence market is anticipated to register a compound annual growth rate of 5.3%, according to GlobalData intelligence, growing from $45.5bn in 2024 to $76bn by 2034. The cumulative market for global expenditure on missiles is valued at $680bn over the forecast period.
The increased focus on the development and procurement of newer-generation missiles and sophisticated missiles and missile defence systems by key military powers such as China, Russia and the US is expected to further drive market growth over the forecast period.
Anduril’s focus on readiness is an ideal area of consideration given the time and money it takes to develop sophisticated weaponry. Anduril positions itself to deliver at pace at a time of unprecedented demand.
“A single Barracuda takes 50% less time to produce, requires 95% fewer tools, and 50% fewer parts than competing solutions on the market today,” the supplier added in their unveiling. “As a result, the Barracuda… is 30% cheaper on average.”
Anduril already down-selected for CCA
The introduction of barracuda does not mean that Anduril has taken the foot of the accelerator when it comes to deep technology.
The company has already been down-selected, alongside General Atomics, to develop a concept for the Collaborative Combat Air (CCA) imitative in January this year. This programme will provide the US Air Force with uncrewed aerial systems to operate in a hybrid formation alongside next-generation crewed fighter aircraft.
This will require development and harnessing of disruptive technologies such as autonomy, machine learning and artificial intelligence to maximise the safety and performance of current and future fighter fleets for agile combat employment.
