Barracuda becomes first WOSA-compliant weapon in large-scale production

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Anduril Industries have demonstrated modularity on a weapon moving into large-scale production.

Following rigorous independent testing by the Munition Open Architecture Test and Evaluation Laboratory (MOATEL), AFRL has verified that Anduril’s Barracuda-M family of affordable, mass-producible cruise missiles is compliant with the Air Force’s Weapon Open Systems Architecture (WOSA) standard. Barracuda is the first weapon system in large-scale production to complete MOATEL’s independent WOSA verification process.

Anduril is on contract to deliver multiple Barracuda variants to customers across the Department of War, with plans to produce several thousand Barracuda systems annually over the next several years. Barracuda production is already underway and the first customer deliveries will begin in early 2027. MOATEL’s assessment ensures that each of those programs will be able to update and upgrade Barracuda as new mission requirements and technologies emerge.

In partnership with industry, WOSA establishes common interfaces that allow weapon subsystems including seekers, navigation modules, software, payloads, and more to be developed, integrated, and upgraded independently. Instead of redesigning an entire weapon around a new component, WOSA enables programs to integrate new technology through defined interfaces as mission requirements, threats, and technology evolve.

Located within AFRL’s Air Warfare Directorate, MOATEL provides independent testing against those requirements, providing government program offices and industry a common means of determining whether a weapon conforms to the WOSA standard.

In partnership with AFRL, Anduril recently completed a four-day MOATEL verification assessing 14 WOSA domains: Mission Autonomy, Seeker, IMU, GPS, Air-Data Sensor, Propulsion, Airframe Control, Target State Estimator, Altimeter Aiding Nav, Clock, Autopilot, Guidance, Navigation and Munitions Data Bus (MDB). The test demonstrated modularity between Anduril’s internal and external MDB implementations, enabling rapid tech refresh of WOSA-compliant software.

“It’s easy to talk about modularity and open architectures in the abstract. Proving it through an independent assessment is harder,” said Pat Morris, VP of Advanced Effects at Anduril. “AFRL and MOATEL’s verification validates one of the fundamental design decisions behind Barracuda: build the weapon around a simple, modular architecture so that programs can integrate new technology without redesigning the entire system. That matters because the Barracudas we produce today need to remain relevant as threats, technology, and mission requirements change.”