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Anduril Industries flew another round of powered flight tests for the Barracuda-100M, a proposed long-range alternative to the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire, Anduril officials said on July 15.
The tests in May 2025 extended the flight envelope for the optically guided Barracuda-100M, demonstrating speeds of more than 500 kt. and high-G maneuvers in the terminal phase, according to Stephen Milano, Anduril’s senior director for advanced effects. An Anduril-owned Aero L-29 aircraft released the missiles during the tests.
Anduril also plans to begin a series of ground-launch tests of the missile later this year, leading to a live-fire demonstration on a government range in 2026.
The rocket-boosted, turbojet-assisted Barracuda-100M is capable of striking targets up to 80 km (50 mi.) away, or about 10 times the range of the rocket-only Hellfire missile.
The tests are helping Anduril develop the Barracuda-100M into a weapon system, but also serve another purpose. The missile is being used as a testbed by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Center’s High-Speed Maneuverable Missile (HSMM) program.
Specifically, the Barracuda-100M is also testing an Army-developed Precision Target Acquisition Seeker (PTAS). A long-wave infrared camera within the seeker automatically tracks targets. Anduril designed the Barracuda-100M to carry the PTAS seeker, but also with modular interfaces to accommodate other targeting sensors in the same size and weight class, Milano said.
Anduril launched the Barracuda-100M program two years ago, rounding out the lower end of a portfolio that includes the Barracuda-200 and Barracuda-500 cruise missiles.
The path to transition the Barracuda-100M into an Army production program is still being formed. Milano described the HSMM program, which funds the testing of the PTAS seeker, as the Army’s version of the Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV) program.
The Defense Innovation Unit’s ETV program funded the development and testing of the Barracuda-500M and the Zone 5 Technologies Rusty Dagger cruise missiles. Both are candidates to enter production through the Air Force’s Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program.
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