PICKAWAY COUNTY, Ohio – The autonomous weapons company moving into central Ohio just signed a deal to mass-produce cruise missiles.
Anduril Industries — the autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence defense company founded by Palmer Luckey — has signed a framework agreement with the U.S. Department of War to produce a minimum of 3,000 surface-launched cruise missiles over three years, with production ultimately shifting to a nearly $1 billion, 5 million square foot facility in Pickaway County.
The agreement, announced May 13, 2026, covers the Barracuda-500M — a cruise missile with a 100-pound munition payload and a range of more than 500 nautical miles, designed to strike land and maritime targets at scale. The Department of War has committed to purchasing at least 1,000 rounds per year, with first deliveries beginning in the first half of 2027. More than 60 containerized launch systems will accompany the first tranche.
The missiles will eventually be manufactured at Arsenal-1 — Anduril’s central Ohio production facility alongside their autonomous drones. Short-term production is currently underway at a 115,000 square foot facility in Southern California that opened earlier this year, but the company has been explicit that Ohio is where long-term, high-volume production will be centered.
Anduril describes the Barracuda-500M as designed for mass production from the ground up — 70 percent commodity components, assemblable in 30 hours with ten common hand tools, built to be produced at what the company calls high single-digit thousands of units by the end of this year…