The Albanese Government has locked in a five-year deal with Anduril, the US defence tech startup founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey, to supply a fleet of drone submarines – outpacing local rivals in the race for undersea supremacy.
Key Takeaways
- The Royal Australian Navy has awarded Anduril a $1.7 billion contract to build, deliver and support its Ghost Shark fleet of Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (XL-AUVs).
- The exact number of subs to be built has not been released but Deputy PM Richard Marles said it would be “dozens”, and the first would be in the water by 2026.
- The subs, designed in Sydney, will be made at Anduril’s local facility, with a supply chain involving more than 40 Australian companies.
- The deal follows a three-year, $140 million prototype program in which Anduril delivered three working autonomous subs on time and on budget.
- Ghost Shark’s stealthy, long-range design promises persistent surveillance and strike capability without surfacing.
- The contract secures 120 existing jobs at Anduril Australia and will add more than 150 new high-skilled roles.
Key background
Palmer Luckey, best known as the creator of Oculus VR, co-founded Anduril in 2017 with a mission to bring Silicon Valley speed and innovation to defence. The Ghost Shark is the company’s biggest Australian win yet, after fast-tracking from concept to production in just three years.
While Anduril has stolen the lead with this billion-dollar Navy contract, several Australian startups are also pitching autonomous undersea systems to Defence.
Canberra’s willingness to back an American-founded company over local challengers underscores the government’s appetite for deployable solutions in a tense Indo-Pacific environment.
Deputy prime minister Richard Marles said the investment was “fast-charging” the navy’s capabilities. “Over the next five years and beyond the Ghost Shark will equip Navy with the intelligence, surveillance and strike capabilities it needs in an increasingly complex strategic environment.”
Asked how the technology compared China’s equivalent undersea drones, Marles said: “We are really confident in standing here today and saying that Ghost Shark is the best underwater autonomous military capability on the planet.”
Ghost Sharks are about the size of a minibus, 5.5 metres long and weighing 2.7 tonnes. They are designed to operate autonomously for up to 10 days at a depth of up to 6000 metres, allowing them to conduct missions too difficult or dangerous for crewed vessels.
Anduril and Defence have always been coy about exactly what would go into Ghost Shark’s large cargo bays, but it could carry weapons or surveillance gear.
Anduril had announced in August that it was going ahead with building a factory in Australia before the deal had been announced.
Big number
$1.7 billion – the value of the Navy’s Ghost Shark deal, more than ten times the size of Anduril’s initial prototype contract. They’re not saying how many Ghost Sharks that buys, but Deputy PM Richard Marles said it would be “dozens”.
Tangent
$368 billion – what Australia is likely to spend on five nuclear submarines over the next 30 years under the AUKUS deal.
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