While U.s. Stalls, Australia And Anduril Move To Put Xl Undersea Vehicle Into Service

With Anduril’s help, Australia has done what nan U.S. Navy has struggled to accomplish: modulation an extra-large undersea drone from achromatic committee to nether statement successful conscionable 3 years.

Anduril announced Tuesday that a fleet of its XL uncrewed undersea conveyance (XLUUV) “Ghost Shark” will statesman operations successful Australian waters adjacent twelvemonth nether a monolithic AUS$1.7 cardinal (US$1.1 billion) contract.

The five-year grant building is nan defense-startup beatified grail; it’s a programme of grounds that fundamentally locks successful recurring gross by becoming a statement point successful nan country’s defense budget. The statement for nan platform, which provides long-range, stealthy surveillance and onslaught operations, covers delivery, maintenance, and continued development.

It besides reflects governmental urgency successful Australia to section caller capabilities successful nan Indo-Pacific to deter nan rising threat from China.

“At nan extremity of nan day, this comes down to having seriousness, having imagination, and having will to conceive a caller thought and bring it to fruition. And that’s what nan Australian authorities has done,” Anduril President Chris Brose said successful an interview. “Australia has less people, a batch little money, and galore of nan aforesaid bureaucratic challenges that our Pentagon has, and they person been capable to execute this.”

The opposition pinch nan United States is stark.

The only XLUUV nether development, Boeing’s Orca, is years down schedule. By comparison, Anduril and Australia co-developed and jointly funded Ghost Shark successful 2022, each putting successful $50 million. The first prototype was delivered successful April 2024, 12 months up of schedule, and accumulation has already begun.

The programme presents a caller exemplary for defense procurement. Anduril put immoderate of its ain superior connected nan statement to derisk Australia’s different accelerated acquisition timeline.

Anduril isn’t stopping pinch Australia.

SVP Of Maritime, Shane Arnott, said Ghost Shark tin beryllium quickly “missionized successful country,” meaning that governments tin plug successful their ain payload modules arsenic needed. Anduril has already produced a U.S. payload that is being tested disconnected nan California coast, and it has stood up a 150,000-square-foot mill successful Rhode Island to nutrient Ghost Sharks successful nan U.S. if a statement materializes.

“The United States has had an XLUUV programme that has been struggling for nan amended portion of a decade,” Brose said. “It has spent a importantly greater magnitude of money connected that programme than nan Australian Government and Anduril person spent processing nan Ghost Shark capability, and it’s further behind. We person spent much clip in, on, and nether nan water. We person an expertise to activity crossed much missions. We are much fresh to go. We are much fresh to present astatine scale, and we will do each of that astatine a little price.”

For Australia, nan urgency is clear. It is nan largest land federation pinch a mini organization and proximity to Western adversaries. Chief among them is China, which has quickly expanded its navy and pushed its ships deeper into nan Pacific, including conducting provocative drills disconnected nan seashore of Australia. That unit has made Ghost Shark a compelling solution.