Anduril Industries has successfully completed another series of flight tests for its Barracuda-100M autonomous air vehicle, part of the U.S. Army’s High-Speed Manoeuvrable Missile (HSMM) programme.
The May 2025 tests mark a significant step forward in a U.S. Department of Defense effort to field affordable, modular, and high-speed strike systems suited for rapid target engagement.
According to a company release, the latest powered flight trials of Barracuda-100M validated both hardware and software upgrades, including a new low-cost inertial navigator and independent mission computer developed in-house by Anduril. The system reportedly exceeded all mission objectives, including autonomous launch, high-G manoeuvres, and multiple terminal guidance strikes at speeds exceeding 500 knots.
The tests were conducted in support of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC), which is working to pair the Barracuda platform with its Precision Target Acquisition Seeker (PTAS). The PTAS payload allows passive, autonomous tracking of targets using long-wave infrared imagery, and has now been integrated into Anduril’s Lattice for Mission Autonomy software framework.
Anduril stated that the Barracuda-100M has progressed from concept to powered flight in under two years, including a compressed 12-month test cycle in 2024 that included full-scale wind tunnel trials, environmental testing, glide tests, and engine trials.
Later this year, the company plans to conduct ground-launch demonstrations to highlight the missile’s adaptability across domains, ahead of a live fire test scheduled for 2026. The system is intended to give U.S. mobile ground forces a fast, manoeuvrable, and mass-producible strike option with extended reach.
Barracuda-100M is described by Anduril as offering up to ten times the range of a similarly sized AGM-114 Hellfire missile while remaining cost-competitive. The missile is designed for scalable production and supports air and ground launch modes, including rail, tail, and canister configurations compatible with fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.
If anyone wants to look at what’s wrong with the “Big Defence” corporate monolith of the US defence industry this is it. Anduril are fairly new, very ambitious fast footed and highly innovative. In other words what NA, McDonald Douglas, Convair were like before they merged into the Companies they are today.
Anduril are busily running rings round them and aren’t even a listed company yet (😞).
That does seem impressive, was only reading yesterday how Martlet was supposed to have been in service in 2015 and only ordered in large numbers in 2023/24 and that is a relatively straightforward adaptation and updating of e siting missiles, it a clean sheet design. But then we are getting similar delays to Spear and Brimstone so not sure what to say about what Anduril seem to be achieving from scratch… just its ownership and backers that concerns me though you aren’t going to get angels in the defence sector.