Will there be a Polish version of the cruise missile? It would be able to hit even very distant targets.

• Within about a hundred days of its first contact with the Polish government, the American company Anduril signed a cooperation agreement with the state-owned Polish Armaments Group.
• PGZ's goal is to launch production of a cruise missile based on the Anduril product in Poland. Collaboration on unmanned aerial vehicles is also possible.
• Both parties are starting talks on locating the plant in Poland.

Anduril Industries is a relatively new entrant into the defense sector. It was founded in 2017 in Costa Mesa, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Its products include unmanned systems, anti-ship systems, and cruise missiles.

Modular Barracuda

Unveiled a year ago in September 2024, the Barracuda is presented as a family of autonomous aircraft and cruise missiles . It is not a classic cruise missile; it shares characteristics with loitering munitions. It is designed in a modular manner to integrate various payloads and targeting modes. According to the manufacturer, the Barracuda-500 has a range of over 500 nautical miles (over 900 kilometers) and carries a relatively small warhead weighing 100 pounds (approximately 45 kilograms). It has currently been purchased by Taiwan, and there are also indications that it will be transferred to Ukraine.

Under the strategic cooperation agreement signed on October 27, a Polish version of the Barracuda-500M cruise missile would be developed.

"Today's event is only the first step in our cooperation with a new partner, but it's an extremely important one, as we are determining the direction, partner, and real value that will be the subject of our cooperation. We are signing a strategic agreement, a memorandum that expresses our mutual intentions, but also outlines what we want to do together. We want to build, develop, and then implement production of cruise missiles based on the Barracuda system together, but we also want to jointly consider various areas of our cooperation related to autonomous air systems," said PGZ President Adam Leszkiewicz.

He announced that "we will be looking for a good location for the new plant." The president of the state-owned PGZ admitted that some time is still needed to "negotiate" certain matters and consult with the governments of both countries. Both sides acknowledge that joint development of the systems will require the consent of the governments in Warsaw and Washington. Leszkiewicz, however, admitted that it is too early to discuss specifics.

The PGZ president also announced that both sides are currently focusing on cruise missiles from the Barracuda family. "The intention is to figure out a way to produce this low-cost launch vehicle as quickly as possible and implement it," Leszkiewicz explained. He added that PGZ's potential entry into cooperation with Anduril regarding unmanned aerial vehicles is currently under discussion.

100 days from the start of cooperation

Anduril Europe Vice President Brian Moran told reporters that the collaboration was initiated by the arrival of Anduril CEO and co-founder Brian Schimpf in Poland this summer, "about 100 days ago." Moran also emphasized that the signing of the memorandum on Monday will not culminate in a shared glass of champagne, but rather a working meeting to discuss the specific location where the collaboration will take place.

In turn, Konrad Gołota, Deputy Minister of State Assets, responsible for the state arms industry, began by thanking Marek Brzezinski, former US ambassador to Poland, who now cooperates with Anduril.

"He and Brian (Schimpf) came to us at the ministry 100 days ago, saying he had something extraordinary he wanted to talk about. And it was extraordinary. In those 100 days, we showed that if there's will, if there's a shared vision, there will be results, there will be impact," Gołota said.

Gołota called the collaboration with Anduril PGZ's entry into the era of the future of technology companies. "Today, we are also opening the eyes of the doubters, opening the eyes of all those who always said: you won't make it, this Polish defense industry, you have so many problems, you have so much to catch up on, you have so much to catch up on. So now I say this: chase us. Chase us, others, because we are running away from you, because Poland is focusing on development, Poland is focusing on technology, Poland is focusing on global security," said the Deputy Minister of State Assets.

PGZ Vice President Marcin Idzik admitted that from the beginning of their cooperation, it was clear that the two companies needed each other. "Anduril needs a Polish ambassador, Polish plants, and Polish engineers for development, but the product is excellent," he stated.

Not only the state-owned Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) is interested in developing its own cruise missile, but also the largest private entity in the Polish arms industry (albeit with a minority stake held by the Polish Development Fund), the WB Group. In September, at the defense fair in Kielce, it unveiled a model of the missile, dubbed the Lance .