Development of prototype Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous underseas vehicles (XL-AUVs) for the RAN is running three months ahead of schedule just eight months into what is a three-year program, David Goodrich, CEO of contractor Anduril Australia, told ADM on 5 March.
Work began on the program at an undisclosed location in Sydney in July 2022 after a $140 million contract was signed in May of that year between the RAN, Defence Science and Technology Group, and Anduril, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US defence technology company Anduril Industries.
The partnership involves co-funding the design, development and construction within three years of three prototype XL-AUVs, each of which will be about the size of a school bus. Anduril is contributing $70 million to the project and using IP from its recently-acquired US AUV manufacturer Dive Technologies as a starting point.
Dive Technologies’ 5.8 metre, 2.8 tonne Dive-LD arrived in Australia in December as a test prototype. This can autonomously conduct missions for up to 10 days along the seafloor at depths of up to 6,000 metres.
“The program is running really well,” Goodrich commented. “We’re doing three prototypes in three years and each one of those will be an evolution, so not three of the same, which is incredible.
“We’re going to be rapidly accelerating the delivery of the first prototype, can’t say when, but it will be well before three years and at the end of that program we will also have a focused plan to produce Ghost Sharks at scale. We strongly believe that Ghost Shark will be a transformational capability.
“Bear in mind the XL-AUV is both a defence and a commercial capability and the payloads that will be able to be deployed inside an XL-AUV will depend on the customers’ needs. It’s now a Defence contract and we’re already testing some sovereign-developed sub-systems, and payloads set by Navy.”