Autonomous air vehicle chosen by DIU and Air Force project
NewsMarch 05, 2025
COSTA MESA, Calif. The Anduril Barracuda-500 autonomous air vehicle (AAV) is the choice of the Air Force Armament Directorate and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as the platform that will move forward to the next phase of the Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV) prototype project, a joint program that aims to create a highly-producible, modular, and affordable air vehicle that will serve as the baseline architecture for large-scale production of next-generation airborne platforms.
The Barracuda-500 -- following rigorous testing and evaluation of the vehicle -- executed a successful flight test in September 2024 during which it demonstrated pre-mission planning, successful vertical launch from a cell designed to emulate palletized employment from air-lift aircraft, autonomous navigation and flight for over 30 minutes, successful capture of a GPS coordinate target identified in the Lattice software application, and autonomous terminal guidance to the target.
According to the company's announcement of the Air Force/DIU choice, the next phase of the project during 2025 will see the Barracuda-500 demonstrating autonomous teaming capabilities, additional proof of the manufacturability of the system, and the usefulness of the the modular architecture that enables mission adaptability. Anduril will also execute a series of flight tests that demonstrate the collaborative autonomous capabilities of the ETV, including simultaneous vertical launch of multiple Barracuda-500 systems, in-flight system-to-system communications, and the further use of the Lattice software during missions in contested environments.
Over the next phase of the program, Anduril says that it will demonstrate how Barracuda-500 adheres to a weapon open system architecture (WOSA) framework, which enables users to rapidly integrate modular hardware and software capabilities into the system as mission needs change.
