Could Cargo Ships Become Armed Battle Platforms with Anduril’s Barracuda-M Missiles?

Picture this: a vast container ship, plowing through the open sea, its steel hull reflecting the soft shimmer of moonlight. It’s carrying cargo, bound for ports in distant lands, seemingly an innocent part of the global trade network. But what if that freighter is more than just a vessel for goods? What if, tucked within its massive frame, lie the weapons of tomorrow’s naval conflicts?

While practically no one is openly declaring that commercial ships will soon be bristling with high-tech missiles, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Anduril Industries, a California defense firm known for its disruptive approach to military tech, has announced the Barracuda–an innovative family of modular missiles. Though Anduril hasn’t stated these weapons could find their way onto commercial vessels, it’s clear they are building technology that could fundamentally alter the way we think about ship defense. These missiles, with their flexibility and ease of deployment, could transform even non-military platforms into lethal forces in a conflict.

In a world where naval power is often stretched thin, the possibility of weaponizing cargo ships and other commercial vessels–whether under government control or private enterprise–looms large. The Barracuda may be a step in that direction.

The Barracuda’s Disruptive Potential

The Barracuda is far from ordinary. Built to strike land and sea targets with precision, its true strength lies in its simplicity. It can intercept autonomous drone vessels approaching ships or target land-based ballistic missile sites launching anti-ship drones, as seen in the Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

Unlike traditional cruise missiles that demand specialized production lines and highly skilled labor, the Barracuda can be built using no more than a handful of common tools. According to Anduril’s Chief Strategy Officer – and author of the book The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare – Chris Brose, These are systems that can be assembled with tools you probably have in your garage–screwdrivers, pliers. It’s not gated on highly specialized tooling or manufacturing processes.

This innovation flies in the face of the traditional defense industry, where missiles are often synonymous with billion-dollar contracts, long production cycles, and complex supply chains. Anduril’s approach? Speed. Affordability. Agility.

The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is already eyeing one Barracuda design as part of its Enterprise Test Vehicle program. The goal is clear: a cheap, effective missile that can be mass-produced in a crisis. But Anduril’s ambitions don’t stop there.

The Blurring Lines Between Civilian and Military Assets

While Anduril hasn’t explicitly stated that the Barracuda could be mounted on commercial vessels, the possibility is hard to overlook. The missiles are designed to be modular and can be launched from various platforms–including those that could easily be retrofitted onto ships that aren’t traditionally part of naval fleets. This flexibility opens up intriguing, and potentially controversial, possibilities.

Imagine a future where not only military destroyers are armed with precision missiles, but so are Ready Reserve and sealift ships. These government-owned vessels, often standing by for emergencies, could be quickly fitted with Barracudas, manned by military personnel, and turned into combat platforms.

Even more provocative is the possibility that merchant ships, operating under private ownership, could be part of a defensive or strategic response. As geopolitical tensions heat up in crucial shipping lanes like the South China Sea, the mere idea of arming civilian vessels for defensive purposes doesn’t seem so outlandish.

A New Kind of Naval Warfare

The Barracuda’s potential to change naval warfare extends far beyond its modular design. One of the most groundbreaking aspects of this missile family is its ability to operate in swarms, thanks to Anduril’s proprietary Lattice artificial intelligence software. These missiles don’t just fly toward their targets; they communicate with one another, coordinating their actions like a school of fish evading a predator.

Related Book: The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

In the chaos of naval combat, swarm tactics could overwhelm enemy defenses, executing complex maneuvers that individual missiles could never accomplish. This kind of AI-driven coordination isn’t just a game-changer–it’s a glimpse into the future of warfare, where machines operate in collaborative networks to achieve objectives that were once the domain of human strategists.

Such capabilities are critical in modern conflicts, where naval forces are often outnumbered or outmaneuvered. A fleet of Barracudas could engage incoming threats from the air, sea, or even land-based installations, effectively flipping the script on traditional naval engagements.

Could the Barracuda End Up on Commercial Ships?

It’s important to stress that Anduril has not come out and said, “We’re putting missiles on container ships.” But the conversation around this is happening. With the growing reliance on automation and AI in both defense and commercial sectors, it’s no longer science fiction to envision a future where commercial vessels could be armed–not offensively, but defensively.

Picture a global shipping fleet where some vessels carry more than just cargo. With a simple retrofit, ships that were once vulnerable to piracy or state-sponsored aggression could deploy missiles in self-defense. As much as this might sound like the stuff of Tom Clancy novels, the technology is already here. And the world may soon be forced to grapple with the implications.

International maritime law, which has long drawn a firm line between civilian and military vessels, would be challenged. How would governments, insurers, and shipping companies adapt to this new reality? Would a container ship with the ability to launch defensive missiles be seen as a combatant? And what risks would it pose to the crew and cargo aboard?

It’s not hard to imagine a world where insurance companies demand that commercial ships protect themselves indirectly. The potential use of armed helicopters or escort vessels by maritime security firms equipped with Barracuda missles opens new avenues for protecting commercial ships from suicide boats. These measures could deter attacks from autonomous vessels, pirates, or other maritime threats without the complexities of arming merchant ships themselves.

It’s easy to envision a future where multiple large-scale oil spills push even the most peace-minded environmentalists to reconsider arming ships with defensive weapons.

If commercial ships are unwilling to protect themselves would government Ready Reserve or Military Sealift ships with active duty military personel aboard be less hesitant to adopt this new technology?

These are questions that defense experts, governments, and shipping companies may soon need to answer as weapons like the Barracuda change the game.

Military Leaders Might Not Have A Choice

US Navy Admirals would likely prefer not to arm merchant ships but will they have a choice? An often overlooked challenge in deploying large numbers of missiles like the Barracuda-M series is the significant amount of deck space required for their launch—space that traditional warships simply don’t have due to their existing arsenal of weapons and sensors. While aircraft could drop these missiles, the entire airlift capacity of the U.S. Air Force is less than what a modern ultra-large container ship can carry. Ground forces face similar logistical hurdles; moving tens of thousands of missiles and drones via truck convoys is complex and inefficient, especially in emerging hotspots like the Pacific. Given these constraints, militaries might have no choice but to leverage commercial vessels to deploy large quantities of these new weapons effectively. Utilizing the vast deck space and cargo capacity of commercial ships could provide a practical solution, albeit one that introduces new strategic and legal considerations.

From Commercial Supply Chains to Global Conflicts

At the heart of the Barracuda revolution is a rethinking of how missiles are made. Anduril has thrown the rulebook out the window by focusing on commercial supply chains to produce low cost military-grade weapons. In a world where conflicts can erupt suddenly and without warning, this strategy offers a significant advantage: the ability to scale production rapidly.

Traditional missile systems take years to develop and are often built in highly specialized facilities with government oversight. Anduril’s approach is radically different. By using commercially available components and simple assembly methods, they’ve created a weapon system that can be produced quickly, in large numbers, and at a fraction of the cost of conventional missiles.

Related Book: Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War

This shift has huge implications for prolonged conflicts. In a drawn-out naval war, having the ability to produce munitions quickly and affordably could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

The Future of Maritime Defense

As Anduril’s Barracuda missiles become a reality, the maritime world stands on the edge of a paradigm shift. No longer is naval warfare the exclusive domain of military vessels. With modular, AI-enabled missiles like the Barracuda, the potential for commercial ships to become part of the fight is on the horizon.

And while the ethical and legal questions surrounding this are enormous, one thing is clear: the world of naval warfare is changing. And the Barracuda may be leading the charge.