July 15 (Reuters) - Defense company Anduril said it has

signed a framework agreement with the Pentagon to deliver

thousands of low-cost Barracuda-500 cruise missiles for seven

years, starting in 2027.

The United States administration has been urging defense

companies to ramp up production as a rise in global conflicts,

including its ongoing war with Iran, has drained the country's

weapons stockpile.

The framework deal, which included two other suppliers

CoAspire and Zone 5, is a part of the Air Force's Family of

Affordable Mass Missiles program, the U.S. defense department

said in a separate statement.

The agreement covers both pallet-launched missiles -

generally deployed from cargo aircraft - and lug-launched

missiles, which are mounted under fighter aircraft wings.

Anduril, founded in 2017, completed the first successful

flight test of pallet-launched Barracuda-500M in September 2024

and expects to conduct a test for the lug-launched variant in

the next several months.

The U.S. government intends to procure up to 8,000 vehicles,

including both variants, each year, the company added.

In May, Anduril signed a framework agreement to deliver

1,000 ground-launched variants of Barracuda-500M annually for

three years.

"By establishing framework agreements... across the next

several years, the Department has energized the non-traditional

industrial base," Anduril said.

Earlier this year, Anduril raised $5 ​billion in a round led

by venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Andreessen

​Horowitz, doubling its valuation to $61 billion.

In June, Norwegian defense and technology group Kongsberg

completed the acquisition of Zone 5 while

Virginia-based CoAspire is owned fully by its two founders and

has no outside investors.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet

Das)