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The US Air Force Armament Directorate (EB) and the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) have selected Anduril’s Barracuda-500 autonomous air vehicle to progress to the next stage of the Enterprise Test Vehicle prototype project.
The Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV) program is focused on developing a highly producible, modular and cost-effective air vehicle which will serve as the foundational architecture for large-scale production of next-generation airborne platforms.
Within just seven months of being chosen for the ETV initiative, Anduril refined the Barracuda-500 design and successfully completed a flight test. This demonstrated the vehicle’s simple and modular construction as well as Anduril’s commitment to proactively developing capabilities ahead of specific customer requirements. The rapid development, testing and deployment of disruptive technologies for defence personnel highlighted the company’s innovative approach.
In the next phase of the project, Anduril will showcase Barracuda-500’s autonomous teaming capabilities, further validating its manufacturing feasibility and highlighting the modular architecture that ensures adaptability to evolving mission requirements.
The objectives of the ETV program – including autonomy, producibility, affordability, modularity and rapid deployment – align closely with Anduril’s design, development and production philosophy for the Barracuda family of autonomous air vehicles.
Anduril’s selection follows rigorous testing and evaluation of the Barracuda-500 autonomous air vehicle (AAV). In September 2024, Anduril, in collaboration with EB and DIU, executed a successful flight test of Barracuda-500.
The comprehensive flight test simulated future operational scenarios, including pre-mission planning, vertical launch from a system emulating palletised deployment from an air-lift aircraft, autonomous navigation for over 30 minutes, successful GPS coordinate targeting via lattice, and autonomous terminal guidance to the target.
Later this year, Anduril will conduct a series of flight tests demonstrating Barracuda-500’s collaborative autonomous capabilities. These will include simultaneous vertical launches of multiple Barracuda-500 systems, in-flight system-to-system communications, and the use of lattice for mission autonomy to enable sophisticated autonomous behaviours in contested environments.
Anduril will also validate the manufacturability and cost-effectiveness of Barracuda-500 in the next phase of the ETV project. The aircraft’s straightforward design, minimal tooling requirements and reliance on commercial components enable large-scale production while adhering to the program’s stringent cost targets per unit.
Over the coming months, Anduril will produce several ETV Barracuda-500 units using manufacturing processes and equipment representative of full-scale production, advancing towards a final production variant slated for mass manufacture in 2026.
With a design based on a set of common subsystems, Anduril’s Barracuda AAV family has been engineered for modularity from the outset. In the next phase, Anduril will demonstrate how Barracuda-500 conforms to the Weapons Open System Architecture standards, allowing defence personnel to swiftly integrate modular hardware and software components as operational needs evolve.
Anduril remains committed to delivering cutting-edge capabilities within timelines that matter. The company looks forward to continuing its collaboration with DIU and the Air Force Armament Directorate to provide a highly producible, modular and cost-effective Enterprise Test Vehicle solution.
