Solving America’s Missile Shortage

By Cho @Adobe Stock

According to The Maritime Executive, a new study, Empty Bins In A Wartime Environment by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), warns that the U.S. lacks sufficient precision-guided munitions to sustain a major naval conflict with China, such as a potential Taiwan Strait war. Simulations show that key missile stockpiles would be depleted within days, with no way to replenish them quickly due to long production timelines, supply chain vulnerabilities, and limited manufacturing capacity. CSIS calls for urgent investments in stockpiles, supply chains, and industrial readiness to ensure deterrence and combat effectiveness in high-intensity warfare.

To address rising concerns over munitions shortfalls, the U.S. military is pushing for modular, low-cost strike systems like Anduril’s Barracuda-500, priced around $150,000—far cheaper than legacy weapons like the $3.22 million LRASM. Advancing to the next phase of the ETV program, Barracuda, with a range of over 500 miles, looks to demonstrate its autonomy, scalability, and production readiness. Anduril writes:

Barracuda-500 Selected to Move Forward on the Enterprise Test Vehicle Prototype Project

Anduril’s selection follows rigorous testing and evaluation of the Barracuda-500 AAV. In September 2024, Anduril executed a successful flight test of Barracuda-500 in close partnership with EB and DIU. The end-to-end flight test was representative of future operational employment of Barracuda-500 and encompassed pre-mission planning, successful vertical launch from a cell designed to emulate palletized employment from air-lift aircraft, autonomous navigation and flight for over 30 minutes, successful capture of a GPS coordinate target identified in Lattice, and autonomous terminal guidance to the target. […]

Later this year, Anduril will execute a series of flight tests that demonstrate the collaborative autonomous capabilities of Barracuda-500, including simultaneous vertical launch of multiple Barracuda-500 systems, in flight system-to-system communications, and how Lattice for Mission Autonomy enables the execution of novel collaborative autonomous behaviors designed to increase effectiveness in contested environments.

Anduril will also prove out the manufacturability and affordability of Barracuda-500 over the next phase of the ETV project, demonstrating how Barracuda-500’s simple design, minimal tooling requirements, and reliance upon commercial components enables hyper-scale production while meeting the program’s aggressive cost targets per round. Over the next several months, Anduril will produce a number of ETV Barracuda-500 units using manufacturing processes and equipment that are representative of future full rate production techniques, continuing development towards a production variant capable of rapidly scalable manufacture in 2026.

Complementing Barracuda’s development, Leidos’ Small Cruise Missile (SCM), known as Black Arrow, with a 400-mile range and a $150,000 price tag, was recently test-launched from an AC-130J aircraft. This 90 kg modular weapon is built for both kinetic and non-kinetic missions and supports the Air Force’s Rapid Dragon program, which enables munitions to be airdropped from unmodified C-130 and C-17 aircraft. Together, Barracuda and Black Arrow exemplify the Pentagon’s broader strategy to achieve affordable mass and agile strike capabilities in contested environments like the Indo-Pacific. Leidos writes:

Leidos completes successful test launch of a SCM from an AC-130J aircraft

Leidos in November successfully completed a guided flight test of their Small Cruise Missile (SCM), known as Black Arrow, from an AC-130J aircraft. The test demonstrated aircraft compatibility, system performance, waypoint uplinks, guidance accuracy as well as integration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Battle Management System (BMS).

The Black Arrow is a low cost, 200-lb class mission adaptable delivery platform designed to facilitate spiral upgrades for both kinetic and non-kinetic missions. The test was conducted as part of a Collaborative Research and Development (CRADA) agreement between Leidos, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

“Performing this test from an AC-130 platform while also integrating with the BMS provided aircrews and operators a chance to see how well our SCM worked,” said Mark Miller, senior vice president for Missile and Aviation Systems at Leidos.

Speaking at the Special Air Warfare Symposium held at Eglin Air Force Base in March, Col. Justin Bronder, USSOCOM PEO-FW, noted that, “SCM is a key capability, rapidly advancing AFSOC’s ability to close long-range kill chains.”

Since the SCM CRADA was initiated in 2022, the concept and benefits of affordable mass have become well recognized within the strike weapons community, and Black Arrow is designed to fulfill this need. Leidos is leveraging model-based system engineering practices to support the timely and cost-effective development. Use of Air Force-advocated architecture standards as well as the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Weapon Open System Architecture are key design elements.

“Aligning to these stringent standards, while successfully demonstrating this capability from an operational aircraft, places us in a strong position to rapidly field Black Arrow if called upon to do so,” Miller said.

The missile is designed to be launched in a variety of methods, including launch ejection from a C-130 (or other cargo utility aircraft) ramp via a custom Ramp Launch Tube (RLT), palletized launch and conventional store release from fixed-wing aircraft.

Leidos is now under contract with USSOCOM to continue test and evaluation activities throughout 2025.

Also, read U.S. Amassing Arsenal of Abundant and Easily Made Anti-Ship Weapons and First Ever Test of Rapid Dragon Missile System in Training Exercise – Your Survival Guy