Pentagon taps Anduril, two others to build low-cost cruise missiles

Kongsberg Gruppen ASA

15/07/2026 16:12

    July 15 (Reuters) - Defense company Anduril said it has signed a framework agreement with the Pentagon to deliver thousands of low-cost Barracuda-500 cruise missiles for seven years, starting in 2027.
The United States administration has been urging defense companies to ramp up production as a rise in global conflicts, including its ongoing war with Iran, has drained the country's weapons stockpile.
The framework deal, which included two other suppliers CoAspire and Zone 5, is a part of the Air Force's Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program, the U.S. defense department said in a separate statement.
The agreement covers both pallet-launched missiles — generally deployed from cargo aircraft — and lug-launched missiles, which are mounted under fighter aircraft wings. 
Anduril, founded in 2017, completed the first successful flight test of pallet-launched Barracuda-500M in September 2024 and expects to conduct a test for the lug-launched variant in the next several months. 
The U.S. government intends to procure up to 8,000 vehicles, including both variants, each year, the company added. 
In May, Anduril signed a framework agreement to deliver 1,000 ground-launched variants of Barracuda-500M annually for three years.
"By establishing framework agreements... across the next several years, the Department has energized the non-traditional industrial base," Anduril said. 
Earlier this year, Anduril raised $5 ​billion in a round led by venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Andreessen ​Horowitz, doubling its valuation to $61 billion.
In June, Norwegian defense and technology group Kongsberg KOG.OL completed the acquisition of Zone 5 while Virginia-based CoAspire is owned fully by its two founders and has no outside investors.

 (Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
 ((Aishwarya.Jain@thomsonreuters.com;))