Again you are missing the point. The debate here is about 500t targets that are not high end threats. That target is not necessarily in range of a JDAM or a 5" shell from a surface platform.
Littoral threats are not something the U.S. Navy concerns itself with because the U.S. Navy cannot operate in the South China Sea without first destroying the PLAN's surface fleets. The missile boats are something that will be picked off by aviation once the sea becomes amenable to operations of offensive carrier groups hundreds of miles outside the range of the C-802s or YJ-83s or whatever they carry.
The practical reality is that the PLAN has 50 Burkes, 45 Perries, and is slowly gaining enough Kitty Hawk sized carriers to muster one to three CVBGs, and these are far greater threats than some missile boats.
The Type 22 and Type 37 FACs that the PRC operates, which are the only ships that fit in roughly that tonnage range, can be defeated by a Seahawk with a JAGM or a Super Hornet with a 500 lbs LJDAM. They are threats to be destroyed once the main battle fleet has been sunk and the South China Sea has been secured for operations by surface ships in the first place.
They are not a threat to aviation and a minor threat to surface warships because they do not have the range to attack carrier battlegroups in deep ocean. Far more concerning to a carrier skirting the second island chain while flinging F-35Cs at stuff is the 40-something Kilos and half dozen 688is the PLAN has.
As I said, Anduril could make a lot of money. Just not in making missiles, or anything like missiles, because they've proven quite bad at that.
Except I don't agree with your assessment of JSM and neither do the nations buying it.
A 250 lbs warhead isn't really a Burke killer lol. A pair of 250 lbs warheads had trouble disabling a Perry.
Those are the things you fire LRASM or JASSM at. JSMs are suitable for killing the Type 22s, 37s, and 56s. They might disable a 53 or 54 since those are Perry sized but you'd need more than one probably. The latter three are what is really important since they have missiles that out range the JAGM and are primary surface units that can traverse the SCS beyond just the littorals and immediate Taiwan area.
The 22s and 37s are just going to die to AH-1Zs loaded with Hellfires pretty much after the U.S. actually wins the war, since it'll win based solely on how quickly troops from ROK and the JSDF can arrive, and how much the ROKN and JMSDF surface units can attrit the PLAN undersea forces before they die to PLAN/PLANAF/PLAAF aviation.
Besides not being a serious threat, due to a variety of reasons ranging from being maintenance queens to simply not having range both sailing and weapon-wise, it's the lack of air defense that kills the Type 22. It's a warmed over Osa class and, like in the Battle of Bubiyan, it would be slaughtered by fixed wing and helicopter aviation before it ever spots an enemy warship.
It'd be scary if it had a bow mounted HQ-7 because then it might actually be able to defend itself from the helicopters hunting it. Alas...
Again you have very much missed the point.
Your point is that the Barracuda-500 is sized to kill a Type 22. Okay? Cool I guess.
I mean, it's not wrong, but it misses the part where killing the Type 22 is something that occurs at the very end of an otherwise successful naval campaign and doesn't need a weapon specific to it. By the time you're needing to swat the little missile boats you've secured air superiority over the PRC coast and are probably looking to launch an amphibious invasion. Much less does the Navy need a FAC that can close in, with Phalanxes and tiny missiles, to bully other missile boats when it has trouble producing enough surface units to secure its SLOCs and trade convoys.
There are plenty of weapons that are already in inventory where it would be much cheaper, and much faster, to simply put in additional orders to establish new factories and production lines to be honest. LJDAM, JAGM, Hellfire-R, JSM...
There's no need for the DAF or DON to actually buy Barracuda-M of any size when existing inventory covers it more or less. There's about 100 or so ships with very limited air defense that won't be able to stop a laser guided bomb from an F-18 dropped from 10,000 feet.
Conversely, there's plenty of reason to believe that Anduril can't be trusted to deliver on their promises either. The last time anyone gave them a chance (DON and the Roadrunner-M), they ended up costing 5x as much as the competition (RTX Coyote) per shot, but it's not like anyone will be buying more Barracuda-M. They'll be bought at the same rate, and likely the same quantity, as JSM!
If anyone "needs" Barracuda-M it's the Taiwanese, not the United States, because the US has enough money to just mass produce JSMs, JASSMs, and LRASMs. Which is exactly what it's doing. Assuming the Barracuda-M comes anywhere close to $200,000, and not something more like $2,000,000, since Anduril has a habit of misplacing zeroes in their cost predictions, maybe they could include a free integration on F-CK-1, stores tests, local production facility, and initial 300 war rounds on the house for that.
Since Barracuda-M is so cheap, all that is basically nothing to Anduril, right.
