The Royal Australian Navy has awarded Anduril Australia a A$1.7 billion (US$1.12 billion) contract to deliver a fleet of Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous submarines.
The Royal Australian Navy opted to bypass conventional procurement processes and instead partnered directly with Anduril on development. The Ghost Shark program was co-developed and co-funded, enabling rapid prototyping, testing, and deployment — all within three years.
“Rather than relying on traditional defense acquisition, the Navy co-developed and co-funded Ghost Shark with Anduril, committing significant financial and bureaucratic capital to the success of the program.”
According to the company, the urgency was driven by persistent threats in Australia’s surrounding waters.
“For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters,” the company said. “Ghost Shark is the instantiation of a Program of Record for AUVs that can directly address this challenge through coastal defense patrols and area-wide domain awareness powered by artificial intelligence at scale.”
Anduril emphasized the broader importance of the project for like-minded nations: “Beyond what Ghost Shark will do to protect Australian seas, the program opens the door for other nations to follow suit — such as the United States and its allies — in deploying autonomous seapower at relevant scale with unprecedented affordability, against a relevant timeframe, and through clear operational concepts.”
In describing the development process, the company noted that “The Royal Australian Navy embedded their people into our processes and allowed us to do the same in theirs — creating true collaboration at every stage.”
The result, the company said, was clear: “Simply put, overhauling the entire system isn’t required to achieve progress — but creative, decisive leadership is.”
Anduril also highlighted its own upfront risk: “Months before securing any formal engagement with government partners, Anduril expended its own capital to acquire Dive Technologies, an AUV startup, recognizing the potent combination of Anduril’s software and Dive’s design could bring forth.”
“In just over two years from acquisition, Anduril had delivered an entirely novel AUV prototype derived from its acquisition of Dive.”
That prototype has now evolved into Ghost Shark. “Today we’ve extended even further from Dive-LD and Dive-XL to effectors and distributed sensors — all evolving from a common core,” the company said.
Anduril also revealed it has invested $60 million in a robotic manufacturing facility in Australia: “Anduril has invested $60M in a sophisticated, robotic XL-AUV manufacturing facility in Australia, where employees are at work to produce entirely sovereign autonomous maritime platforms.”