Whether in the Red Sea or in Ukraine, attack drones have emerged as key munitions in recent conflicts, occasionally stealing the spotlight from the tactical missiles they complement, and sometimes even replace.
Far more economical and faster to produce than missiles of comparable range, these tactical drones are also generally much less expensive than the anti-aircraft munitions used to intercept them, creating a completely new imbalance in the air warfare equation.
An American company, Anduril, has perfectly anticipated this development. Created in 2017, this startup is now valued at $15 billion, thanks to a few models of drones and attack drones, such as the Altius loitering munition, the Fury combat drone, or the Dive-LD underwater drone, all of which have attracted great interest from the American armed forces.
Anduril presented a new concept this week, clearly very inspired by feedback from Ukraine and the Red Sea. The Barracuda drone range is made up of different models of drones of increasing size, designed to carry payloads that are also increasing, over increasingly greater distances.
Above all, in its M version, the Barracuda transforms into an attack drone, offering all the virtues of tactical missiles, from the anti-tank missile to the long-range cruise missile, for a price that is incomparable with them.
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Anduril, the surprise winner of the first tranche of the US Air Force's CCA program
La Costa Mesa startup, in California, had already made a name for itself in recent years, participating in several key programs of the American army and DARPA, notably with the Altius drone family. Many were, from then on, to predict A successful future in Anduril.
However, very few had actually predicted that the Californian startup would impose itself, alongside drone specialist General Atomics, in the competition to design the drones of the first tranche of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, or CCA.
This is, in fact, one of the most decisive programs for the US Air Force, in its transition towards the integration of combat drones in its air warfare system. It is so essential for the USAF that it preferred to preserve it, even if it meant endangering the NGAD program of 6th generation fighter, when budgetary impasses appeared in June 2024.
So it was a surprise when the Air Force entrusted such a crucial part of its future technologies to a young startup, while the three major aircraft manufacturers, Lockheed Martin which designed the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II, Northrop Grumman at the origin of the B-2 Spirit and the B-21 Raider, and Boeing, designer of the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and the F-15EX Eagle II, all support the ranks.
Anduril will present its Fury combat drone for the CCA program at the Air Force Conference next week, alongside the General Atomics XQ-67, just six months after being named winner of this first competition.
With the Barracuda drones, Anduril forges the missing link between attack drones and tactical missiles
While Anduril's future now seems assured through the US Air Force's CCA program and the various programs linking the company to other American armed forces, the company, as a good startup that it is, does not intend to rest on its laurels.
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A missile is a (self-guided or unguided) and self-propelled device.
The drones in question _are_ missiles.
Nothing really differentiates them from a cruise missile except their price. This difference is perhaps partly due to the components used (more widely from consumer ranges?) but probably mainly to better industrial efficiency.
The arms industry has become too accustomed to gorging itself on public money and competition from new players is welcome. Too bad it still comes from the United States.
It's difficult to take a position: we have more or less the cost of a Scalp (I have 500 k€ in mind) but not that of an Anduril drone of equivalent capacity.
The other difficult element to take into account is: the cost of a mass-produced 155mm shell VS a small drone (we are told of prices ranging from €500 per shell to €5000, but we do not know if this data is still valid) vs the price of the small drone.
Finally, the last point of comparison is with AASM and their new powder propellant (200 to 300 km, under development), cruise missiles and long-range drones.
A cost comparison table would be very helpful.
This information is not being released at the moment, so it is impossible to make a table. That said, if Anduril invests in this area, to gain an advantage over tactical missiles in terms of price, it will be necessary for it to have a substantial advantage in this area to convince the US Air Force and its partners. I doubt that this has escaped them.
The difference is mainly in the modularity of the payload and the on-board systems. The drone can be used for attack, reconnaissance, decoy function, electromagnetic intelligence etc… depending on its payload… the missile cannot.