American defense contractor Anduril Industries aims to replenish critically depleted US weapon stockpiles with its new low-cost Barracuda cruise missile amid multiple challenges in the US and allied defense production base for such munitions.
This month, Anduril unveiled the Barracuda family of Autonomous Air Vehicles (AAVs), including the Barracuda-100, Barracuda-250 and Barracuda-500 – all of which are designed for affordable, hyper-scale production.
Anduril mentions that these air-breathing, software-defined expendable AAVs offer increasing size, range and payload capacity and are compatible with various payloads and employment mechanisms.
The company says the Barracuda-M configuration provides a cost-effective, adaptable cruise missile capability, addressing the US and its allies’ pressing need for more producible and upgradeable precision-guided munitions (PGM).
The Barracuda family of AAVs features advanced autonomous behaviors, turbojets and air-breathing engines, enabling high speeds, maneuverability and extended ranges. Anduril says the Barracuda is designed for rapid, low-cost assembly and requires fewer tools and parts, making it 30% cheaper than competitors.
It notes that its modular design allows for quick adaptation to evolving threats and new technologies, leveraging commercially derived components for supply chain resilience. The Barracuda family also supports various mission sets and can be deployed from multiple platforms, including fifth-generation fighter aircraft and surface vessels.
With Barracuda, Anduril says it aims to rebuild the US arsenal with these intelligent, flexible and mass-producible weapons, combining modern software with cutting-edge hardware to enhance air dominance and strike capabilities.
Anduril’s Barracuda AAVs could offer a solution to many of America’s production and supply chain issues, providing scalable, affordable and adaptable PGMs at a time when the US defense industrial base struggles to meet demand.
In a January 2023 report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Seth Jones notes that the US faces several critical challenges in producing PGMs.
Jones says lead times are a significant bottleneck, with certain missiles, such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and Tomahawk Block V, taking up to two years to produce.
He mentions that the US defense industrial base struggles to maintain surge capacity due to workforce and supply chain constraints.
Jones points out that while companies need stable contracts and clearer demand signals to invest in production, inconsistent orders from the US Department of Defense (DOD) exacerbate the problem.
He adds that single-source dependencies for critical components such as rocket motors and missile energetics further hamper the US defense industry. He mentions that the global supply chain, particularly reliance on China for rare-earth metals, also poses vulnerabilities.
Jones says that regulatory hurdles, such as outdated Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), retard arms sales to critical allies, impacting the defense industry’s ability to ramp up production efficiently.
Further, in a February 2023 CSIS report, Jones says that the DOD’s munitions stockpiles would likely be insufficient in a major regional conflict, including a war with China over Taiwan.
Jones says that simulations revealed that the US would run out of critical long-range PGMs within weeks, posing a significant challenge to sustaining a protracted conflict with China.
He points out that this shortfall is exacerbated by China’s rapid acquisition of high-end weapons systems, outpacing the US by five to six times.
Jones notes that the defense industrial base faces longstanding issues, including inconsistent demand signals and supply chain vulnerabilities, which hinder its ability to replenish stockpiles quickly.
He says the urgency to address these challenges has increased with China’s growing military capabilities and the rising potential for a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The writer stresses that deterrence relies on a robust industrial base capable of producing sufficient munitions and weapons systems.
Similarly, Stacie Pettyjohn and Hannah Dennis mention in a June 2023 report for the Center for A New American Security (CNAS) that the primary issue with the US defense industrial base stems from a combination of limited manufacturing capacity and fragile supply chains.
Pettyjohn and Dennis say these problems are exacerbated by the industry’s reliance on complex and often unstable supply chains for critical components, such as rocket motors and microelectronics. They add that the US defense industry, which scaled back production during the post-Cold War era, now struggles to ramp up production quickly.
To address these problems, they mention that the DOD has identified the need for stability and capacity expansion, which they argue can be achieved through multi-year procurement (MYP) and large-lot procurement (LLP) programs.
Pettyjohn and Dennis say these initiatives aim to provide consistent demand signals to the US defense industry, encourage investment in production capacity and enhance the ability to surge production when necessary.
While Anduril’s Barracuda offers a potential solution to US domestic production inefficiencies, boosting munitions output will also require tapping into the manufacturing capabilities of key allies like Japan and South Korea.
In a February 2024 report for The Heritage Foundation, a conservative US think tank, Wilson Beaver and Jim Fein suggest that the US should explore the potential for collaboration with partner nations to enhance America’s munitions production capacity.
Beaver and Fein mention that significant manufacturing capacity and robust defense industries exist in certain allied countries, including South Korea and Japan. They say that the US should capitalize on this capability and investigate how allied foreign industries can raise the production of US-origin defense equipment such as munitions.
They point out that the supply of munitions is so inadequate that the production of munitions by partners and allies, including Germany, the UK, Japan and South Korea, would not negatively affect US manufacturing.
However, a June 2021 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report mentions the challenges of aligning the industrial bases of multiple nations to meet US military standards, which often complicates production synchronization and increases the risk of operational delays.
The CRS report highlights that the complexity of working with foreign supply chains can further exacerbate potential delays. It mentions that US PGMs often include components of foreign origin, posing risks to supply chain security and the ability to replenish stockpiles quickly.
Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach, in a March 2023 War on the Rocks article, highlight significant challenges in US munitions co-production with allies, which they argue are primarily due to supply chain bottlenecks and export regulations.
Banerjee and Tkach point out that export regulations designed to protect US intellectual property and maintain technological advantages complicate international collaboration. They say such regulations often create bureaucratic hurdles that can slow down the licensing agreements necessary for co-production.
Too little and too late.