'Ghost Shark': Anduril delivers first giant spy sea drone to Australia – Interesting Engineering

by | Apr 22, 2024 | Engineer

The new drone is ahead of schedule and, amazingly, well within budget.
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Anduril has announced the delivery of its first prototype, the “Ghost Shark” underwater drone, to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The first of the three planned programs is a collaboration between the RAN, the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA), and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG).
Anduril has also announced that the program is running ahead of schedule and, amazingly (for anyone familiar with defense contracts), well within budget. This is a major milestone for the $140 million contract.
The Ghost Shark is an extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (XL-AUV) that will serve the RAN on critical missions in the Pacific. Three of these vehicles will be delivered to the RAN within three years.
The Ghost Shark is a versatile and modular capability that can be adapted to meet the Australian Defence Force’s mission requirements, serving as an effective force multiplier for Defence.
The drone, whose name is a nod to Boeing’s “Ghost Bat,” can run autonomously underwater for up to ten days. It can also reach depths of around 19,685 feet (6,000 meters).
Unlike traditional submarines, the Ghost Shark drone can be entirely flooded during operation. Its key systems and sensors are all encased in pressured “sanctuaries.” This means it can perform novel underwater operations (either passive or kinetic) without considering the human crew’s well-being.
“Due to its modular and multi-role nature, our adversaries will need to assume that their every move in the maritime domain is subject to our surveillance and that every XL-UV (drone) is capable of deploying a wide range of effects — including lethal ones,” RAN Admiral Peter Quinn explained in a press conference back in 2022.
“Once your potential adversaries understand what a Ghost Shark is — not that we’re going to give them any specifics — we expect they will generate doubt and uncertainty,” he added. “Hopefully, they’ll even start hearing the Jaws theme in their head if they suspect one is about,” he quipped.
Given the sensitive nature of the program, few other details are publicly known, but Admiral Quinn has stated a few tantalizing details, including that Ghost Shark can allegedly be controlled remotely from various domains.
This has been interpreted to mean that the drones can be fed new missions on the fly. It can also have its payload readily swapped out and could, it has been suggested, play some role alongside the RAN’s nascent nuclear attack submarine fleet. However, that is purely speculation at this point.
“The timeline we set to design and produce three Ghost Sharks in three years in Australia, by Australians for the ADF, was extremely ambitious. I am excited to report that we are ahead of schedule and, importantly for a Defence program, we are on a budget,” explained David Goodrich OAM, Executive Chairman and CEO of Anduril Australia.
“We’re moving incredibly quickly on this program in lockstep with our ASCA, DSTG, and the RAN partners. The strategic leadership and innovation insights provided by Professor Tanya Monro, Professor Emily Hilder, and Vice Admiral Mark Hammond are key to our success,” said Mr Goodrich.
The entire Ghost Shark program, Anduril explains, is the product of a collaboration between 42 private companies in Australia. To this end, the XL-UAV is an entirely homegrown affair for Australia.
Once complete, Ghost Shark will also be offered for international export, with the United States Navy already interested in seeing what it can do. “‘Ghost Shark’ [exemplifies] how Defence and Australian industry can move at speed to develop new sovereign capabilities to respond to the challenges before us,” says Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy.

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