Image: Anduril
The U.S. Department of War has signed a framework agreement with defence technology firm Anduril Industries to produce at least 3,000 surface-launched cruise missiles over three years. The deal marks a deliberate departure from the low-volume, high-cost munitions procurement that has long defined American defence acquisitions.
Announced on 13 May 2026, the agreement tasks Anduril with delivering a minimum of 1,000 rounds of the surface-launched Barracuda-500M per year to the Army’s Program Acquisition Executive FIRES, according to Anduril. First deliveries are scheduled for the first half of 2027, with more than 60 containerised launchers included in that initial tranche.
The SLB-500M carries a 100-pound payload and offers a range exceeding 500 nautical miles. It launches from a standard 20-foot ISO container holding up to 16 rounds, with operators directing it through Anduril’s Lattice fire-control software or existing Army systems. The missile also supports autonomous and collaborative strike behaviours in contested environments.
Affordability underpins the design. Around 70 percent of the SLB-500M’s components are commodity parts, and assembly requires ten common hand tools and takes roughly 30 hours. Traditional munitions programmes routinely peak at a few hundred rounds annually, a supply rate the Department of War is openly seeking to reverse.
To support production, Anduril has opened a 115,000-square-foot facility in Southern California and is investing nearly one billion dollars in a five-million-square-foot factory in Columbus, Ohio. The company has also committed 75 million dollars in private capital, alongside 58 million dollars in Defence Production Act Title III funding, to build a solid rocket motor plant in Mississippi. That investment makes Anduril the third U.S. supplier of such motors.
You can read more on Anduril’s website
