Latvia moves to buy Anduril’s Barracuda cruise missiles

Latvia is working to buy Anduril’s Barracuda long-range cruise missiles, President Edgars Rinkēvičs said after visiting the American defense company and meeting its founder, Palmer Luckey.

Rinkēvičs wrote that he looked forward to completing the acquisition of the missiles and to further defense industry cooperation. During the visit he also witnessed the signing of memoranda of cooperation involving Latvia’s Ministry of Defense and Origin Robotics, a Latvian drone maker. Neither Latvia nor Anduril has disclosed which Barracuda version Latvia wants, how many missiles it plans to buy, the price or a delivery date. The terms of the memoranda were not made public.

Barracuda is a family of turbojet-powered, subsonic cruise missiles that Anduril unveiled in September 2024 in three sizes: Barracuda-100, -250 and -500. The largest carries a warhead of more than 45 kg (99 pounds) over 926 km (575 miles). Anduril designed the missiles to be built quickly and in large numbers, and says the three versions share more than 90% of their components. The company claims Barracuda costs about 30% less and takes half the time to produce compared with similar cruise missiles.

The missiles can be launched from fighter jets, helicopters, cargo aircraft, ships and ground launchers. Anduril says they can fly together and split roles on a single mission, with some acting as decoys or scouts while others strike.

Barracuda is moving into large-scale production. In May, the U.S. Department of War signed a framework agreement for Anduril to deliver at least 1,000 surface-launched Barracuda-500Ms a year for three years to the U.S. Army, starting in 2027. In July, Poland’s state-owned defense group PGZ signed an agreement to assemble and later produce the Barracuda-500M at its Military Aviation Works No. 2 plant in Bydgoszcz. PGZ said European production could make the missile eligible for purchase by other EU countries under the bloc’s SAFE defense loan program.

Origin Robotics, based in Riga, builds drones for military use. Its BEAK drone is already in combat service in Ukraine. The company has also developed BLAZE, a briefcase-sized drone interceptor that uses radar and AI-based cameras to find and hit enemy drones on its own after launch.

Latvia borders Russia and Belarus. Its longest-range strike weapon on order is the Army Tactical Missile System, a ballistic missile with a range of about 300 km (186 miles) that Latvia is buying along with six HIMARS launchers under a deal approved by the U.S. State Department in 2023. The Barracuda-500 would give Latvian forces roughly three times that reach.