Anduril’s Barracuda has become the first weapon in large-scale production to pass the US Air Force’s independent verification for its Weapon Open System Architecture (WOSA) standard.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) verified that the Barracuda-M family met WOSA requirements after a four-day assessment by the Munition Open Architecture Test and Evaluation Laboratory (MOATEL).
WOSA is part of the broader Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), a defense acquisition strategy that uses standardized interfaces to make military systems easier to modify, upgrade, and integrate with components from different suppliers.
Barracuda is a family of affordable, mass-producible cruise missiles designed to be produced at scale. Anduril has developed multiple variants for different missions, with production already underway and first customer deliveries expected in early 2027.
The assessment covered 14 WOSA domains, including the seeker, inertial measurement unit, GPS, air-data sensor, propulsion, airframe control, autopilot, guidance, navigation, and the Munitions Data Bus.
Testing also demonstrated modularity between Anduril’s internal and external Munitions Data Bus implementations, according to the company.
Why WOSA Matters
Traditional weapon development can make upgrades difficult when components are tightly tied to a proprietary system.
WOSA is intended to separate those components through defined interfaces. That can give military programs more flexibility to integrate new technology as it becomes available, while potentially reducing the work needed for later upgrades.
“Open architecture is only meaningful when it can be independently verified, and for WOSA that verification is through MOATEL,” WOSA creator and program manager Jonathan Shaver said.
WOSA has already been used in other air force weapons efforts. AFRL previously developed a WOSA-compliant seeker for QUICKSINK, a program that demonstrated how different manufacturers’ seeker components could be integrated into a weapon.