Poland's PGZ to build Anduril's Barracuda-500M cruise missile in Bydgoszcz

The July 6 agreement makes Poland the first European producer of Anduril's mass-production cruise missile, with thousands of rounds planned and a route to EU-funded sales under the SAFE scheme.

Anduril Industries and Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa signed a cooperative agreement on July 6 to assemble, then fully produce, the surface-launched Barracuda-500M cruise missile at Military Aviation Works No. 2 in Bydgoszcz, Defense News reported. Prime Minister Donald Tusk attended the signing, and Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also runs the defense ministry, called it the first agreement of its type between Anduril and a European partner.

The deal converts a memorandum of understanding from October 27, 2025 into a production program. PGZ said in a statement that the partners will manufacture thousands of SLB-500M rounds for the Polish Armed Forces, folding in a growing share of Polish and European components in later phases. The host plant has spent decades overhauling Soviet-designed jets; new-build autonomous missiles are a different industrial job, and PGZ acknowledged as recently as November that the Polish variant's technical specifications were still open.

The missile itself is built for volume. The Barracuda-500M carries a payload above 100 pounds beyond 500 nautical miles, about 926 kilometers, at 190 to 500 knots, per Janes. Kosiniak-Kamysz described the weapon as "precise, resistant to electronic warfare, fast, and inexpensive to produce." Anduril unveiled the turbojet family in September 2024 and claims roughly 30 percent lower cost and 50 percent faster assembly than comparable cruise missiles, Defence Blog noted. Washington moved first: the Pentagon signed a framework with Anduril in May for at least 3,000 surface-launched rounds over three years, The Defense Post wrote.

The Polish line also carries a funding calculation. The EU's €150 billion SAFE loan instrument requires that no more than 35 percent of a funded system's component costs come from outside the EU, the EEA or Ukraine. PGZ's stated objective is a Barracuda "manufactured predominantly in Europe" that clears the cap, which the company says could make the missile eligible for other EU buyers. Poland holds the largest SAFE allocation, about €43.7 billion, according to Defense News.

A missile designed to be fired by the thousands now gets a factory in the NATO member bordering Kaliningrad, and a majority-European Barracuda would turn Poland's buy into a product other EU capitals can finance through the same loan scheme. Polish procurement follows national channels once localization targets are set, and the Pentagon's first surface-launched deliveries are due in the first half of 2027, per Defence Blog.