Anduril’s Barracuda cruise missile has passed the Air Force Research Laboratory’s independent check for open-architecture weapons. AFRL’s Munition Open Architecture Test and Evaluation Laboratory, known as MOATEL, certified the Barracuda under the Weapon Open System Architecture (WOSA) process. The certification came after the lab’s engineers spent four days at Anduril’s California headquarters.
The check covered 14 WOSA domains. As reported, it verified the missile’s architecture against an interface standard, and none of the accounts describes a flight test. Anduril plans to deliver its first Barracuda missiles to the Pentagon in early 2027.
Air & Space Forces Magazine reported the certification in a Sept. 25, 2026 article by Todd South. It said MOATEL oversees the WOSA certification process. According to an Anduril spokesperson cited in the article, the MOATEL team’s four days at the company’s California headquarters were spent verifying WOSA compliance on Anduril hardware.
The 14 domains MOATEL checked
Per Air & Space Forces Magazine, the verification tested these 14 WOSA domains:
- Mission Autonomy, Seeker, Inertial Measurement Unit and GPS
- Air-Data Sensor, Propulsion, Airframe Control and Target State Estimator
- Altimeter Aiding Navigation, Clock, Autopilot and Guidance
- Navigation and Munitions Data Bus
According to the magazine, the point of the assessment is that “those munitions can be updated and upgraded as users need new technology.” The Defense Post, reporting on Sept. 24, 2026, said WOSA falls under the Pentagon’s broader Modular Open Systems Approach. That approach uses defined, standardized interfaces so that parts from different suppliers can be added or upgraded with less rework. According to Anduril, as reported by The Defense Post, the testing also showed that the company’s internal and external Munitions Data Bus implementations are modular.
Jonathan Shaver, identified by the magazine as “program manager and creator of WOSA at AFRL’s Air Warfare Directorate,” described what the result shows:
“This is showing that open architecture can scale beyond prototypes.”
What MOATEL is
MOATEL is part of AFRL’s Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, according to an Air Force Materiel Command article by Estella Holmes, which carries no date on its page. The article describes MOATEL as both a laboratory and a team of people. They maintain the WOSA standards and requirements, verify that munition components comply with them, and validate digital models against real components. Christopher Neal, an open architecture subject matter expert in the directorate, called it “the third-party verification tool to ensure Open Architecture is accomplished throughout all stages of a project.”
The AFMC article said MOATEL verifications to that point had been limited to prototypes and AFRL research programs.
Tested, and still to come
What the record shows is an architecture and interface verification completed by an Air Force laboratory, with no flight test or live firing described as part of it. Anduril’s claims about the missile’s performance are separate and remain claims.
Air & Space Forces Magazine lists figures for three variants. The Barracuda 100 carries a payload of roughly 35 pounds and has a range of more than 120 nautical miles. The Barracuda 250 carries roughly 35 pounds and has a range of more than 200 nautical miles. The Barracuda 500 carries more than 100 pounds over more than 500 nautical miles. The magazine says the WOSA verification applies across the variants.
Pat Morris, Anduril’s vice president of advanced effects, told the magazine: “It’s easy to talk about modularity and open architectures in the abstract.” He added that proving it through an independent assessment is harder.
The next milestone on record is delivery. Anduril is slated to hand its first Barracuda missiles to the Pentagon in early 2027, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Top image: A B-1B carries an AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile above Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in November 2020. Anduril’s Barracuda is not shown. Image Credit: Ethan Wagner / U.S. Air Force — Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.