Latvia moves to buy American long-range strike missiles
Article excerpt
Writing on X, Mr Rinkēvičs said: “It was great to visit Anduril to meet with Palmer Luckey and to witness signing of memoranda of cooperation with MOD of Latvia and Origin Robotics. Looking forward to complete acquisition of Barracuda long-range missiles and Latvian-US defense industry cooperation.” Neither Latvia nor Anduril has disclosed which variant is wanted, how many missiles would be bought, the price or a delivery date. The Barracuda-500M, the long-range member of the family, has a range of more than 500 nautical miles, or around 926 kilometres, which is roughly three times the reach of the ATACMS rounds Latvia has ordered for its HIMARS launchers. Given that the country operates no fast jets and has a limited helicopter fleet, a ground-launched configuration would be the obvious route for it to take. Anduril offers the family as an answer to a shortfall in affordable, producible long-range precision weapons, claiming it requires half the production time, 95 per cent fewer tools and half the parts of comparable weapons. The variants can operate autonomously and collaboratively with one another, acting as decoys as well as conducting strikes, and can be launched from fighters, helicopters, cargo aircraft, ships and ground launchers. Production is already being scaled up on both sides of the Atlantic. The American Department of War signed a framework agreement in May...
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The second agreement signed during the visit concerns counter-drone work, and under it Origin Robotics, based in Riga, is to integrate its BLAZE autonomous interceptor into Anduril’s Lattice command and control system, giving a layered counter-uncrewed aircraft capability for Latvia and NATO’s eastern flank.
