Anduril has achieved a major milestone for its Barracuda-M weapon family after the missile successfully completed an independent US Air Force assessment for compliance with the Weapon Open System Architecture (WOSA) standard. The four-day evaluation was conducted by the Munition Open Architecture Test and Evaluation Laboratory (MOATEL), operating under the Air Force Research Laboratory. The assessment examined 14 WOSA areas covering major weapon subsystems, including the seeker, inertial measurement unit, GPS, air-data sensors, propulsion, airframe controls, autopilot, guidance, navigation, and Munitions Data Bus. Testing also demonstrated that Barracuda could accommodate both Anduril’s own and externally developed Munitions Data Bus implementations. WOSA is part of the broader Modular Open Systems Approach, which is intended to reduce dependence on proprietary technologies by establishing standardized interfaces between weapon components. Such an architecture can allow individual subsystems to be replaced or upgraded without requiring extensive changes throughout the weapon. Barracuda has been developed as a relatively affordable cruise missile family designed for high-volume manufacturing. Anduril has created several configurations for different missions, with production already underway and initial customer deliveries planned for early 2027. The company says the independent verification demonstrates that the weapon’s open architecture has been validated through a formal government testing process. The Air Force has previously applied WOSA principles to other programs, including QUICKSINK, where an open-architecture seeker was developed to support integration from different manufacturers.
