Anduril Industries and Rheinmetall partner to design and manufacture Barracuda, Fury and SRMs for European defence

Dusseldorf-based Rheinmetall and Californian company  Anduril Industries have announced a strategic partnership to co-develop and deliver the Barracuda cruise missile, Fury Uncrewed Autonomous System (UAS) and an undisclosed selection of Solid Rocket Motors (SRM) for European defence.

The partnership is centred on the development of these three proven capabilities, says Anduril, with the intention to extend to more over time. Barracuda is a family of low-cost, mass-producible cruise missiles;  Fury is a high-performance, multi-mission group 5 Autonomous Air Vehicle (AAV);  and the partners will explore opportunities for SRMs for European use, leveraging Anduril’s new production approaches. All will be integrated into Rheinmetall´s digital sovereignty framework, “Battlesuite”.

These systems will be jointly developed and produced by the two companies, incorporating sovereign suppliers and industrial partners throughout Europe, says Anduril.

“This is a different model of defence collaboration, one built on shared production, operational relevance, and mutual respect for sovereignty,” said Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril Industries. “Together with Rheinmetall, we’re building systems that can be produced quickly, deployed widely, and adapted as NATO missions evolve.”

“Rheinmetall has always stood for reliability, scale, and strategic depth in defence manufacturing,” said Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall. “By integrating Anduril’s solutions into Rheinmetall’s European production set up and digital sovereignty framework, we’re building on that foundation to bring new kinds of autonomous capabilities into service, ones that are quick to produce, modular, and aligned with NATO’s evolving requirements.”

The partnership is a long-term shared investment in co-developing easily fielded systems tailored to the specific needs of each European regional market, say both companies. It reflects a “built with, not for” philosophy, one that prioritizes local control, transparency, and adaptability over dependency or lock-in.

The integration of Barracuda and Barracuda-M into Rheinmetall´s systems will provide European militaries with an affordable autonomous air vehicle designed for hyperscale production. Its modular design supports a wide range of payloads and targeting modes making it a flexible option for the unique needs of European forces.

The inclusion of Fury, an autonomous air vehicle designed to operate as part of manned-unmanned teams of aircraft, into Rheinmetall´s ecosystem of products allows each country to configure its own command-and-control systems and operational constraints. Fury is designed to deliver advanced fighter performance with the flexibility to integrate a variety of sensors and payloads in support of mission requirements.

The SRMs could help ensure European access to a reliable line of propulsion systems offering industrial redundancy and delivery at scale, when domestic sources are not yet sufficient.

The partnership builds on earlier collaboration between the two companies, including the development of a layer counter-UAS solution and a joint pursuit of the US Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program. Rather than slow, proprietary development pipelines that tie customers to a single vendor, this partnership embraces speed, modularity, and co-development.