The Australian government has earmarked $1.7 billion to locally build a fleet of long-range lethal underwater drones that will be in the service of the Australian Navy by January 2026.
Dubbed "Ghost Sharks", an undisclosed number of uncrewed underwater drones – aka extra-large autonomous undersea vehicles (XL - AUL) - will be deployed to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and strike measures.
These Australian-designed and built Ghost Sharks can be deployed from warships or launched off the coast.
“This is a world-class capability that has the capability to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike at extremely long distances from the Australian continent,” said the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, emphasising the final point.
“Let me repeat that: we will have the ability to strike at extremely long distances from the continent of Australia.”
It’s understood that defence forces around the world are opting for cheaper to build and run autonomous technologies with crewless platforms that can be deployed at scale.
Countries are also investing heavily in improving submarine detection technologies, undermining the stealth capability that has been crewed submarines’ decisive advantage for decades.
By comparison, the cost of Ghost Sharks is a fraction of the forecast cost of AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines, which stands at $368 billion and will take decades to build.
However, acting Prime Minister Richard Marles was quick to tell the media that Ghost Sharks were a major boost to Australia's undersea warfare capabilities, complementing the navy's expected future nuclear-powered submarines.
With the potential to perform long-duration missions without surfacing, Marles believes Ghost Sharks are an example of Australia’s emergence as a world leader in autonomous underwater military capabilities.
"Ghost Shark operates in conjunction with it, that's the point that I made up front. It also works in conjunction with our surface fleet, in what is clear is that going forward nations will need to have an autonomous military capability and that's what Ghost Shark represents," he said.
"We will also need very much a long range capable submarine in the future and I'm really confident that's what we're developing under the banner of AUKUS by providing Australia with that capability."
Meanwhile, Navy chief Vice Admiral Mark Hammond is confident Australia and its allies would continue to have a "capability advantage" in undersea warfare, even as countries like China develop sophisticated technologies as seen in the massive military parade in Beijing last week.
Marles also highlighted the need for discretion about Ghost Shark's specific functions.
"We're going to be a little coy in terms of how we answer specific questions about what this can do, given the nature of what it does," he said.
The program is being delivered as part of a five-year contract led by major U.S. defence company Anduril that will also handle maintenance and ongoing development.
