By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia said it will spend A$1.7 billion ($1.1 billion) on a fleet of “Ghost Shark” autonomous undersea vehicles, developed by its defence force and U.S. startup Anduril Industries, for surveillance and strikes.
Defence Minister Richard Marles told reporters on Wednesday the Ghost Shark will complement Australia’s navy surface fleet and submarines to provide “a more capable and more lethal navy”.
Dozens of Ghost Sharks will be built in Australia, with opportunities to export to allies, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said.
“It has the capability to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and strike at extremely long distances from the Australian continent,” Conroy said, adding that the first Ghost Sharks will be in service from January 2026.
Australian defence officials declined to give details on how far the Ghost Shark can range, or how many will be built at Anduril’s Australian factory.
Australia separately plans to buy and build nuclear-powered submarines with Britain and the United States from the early 2030s under the AUKUS programme to counter China’s rapid navy build up in the Indo-Pacific region.
Chief of Navy Mark Hammond said the Ghost Shark can operate over long distances from Australian bases, navy vessels and also be transported by military aircraft to “be deployed forward”.
“The undersea battle space will continue to be increasingly contested and increasingly congested, but ultimately that is the most opaque environment on the planet and I believe our allies and partners will continue to enjoy a capability advantage in that space,” Hammond said.
As the U.S. presidential administration under Donald Trump reviews AUKUS it has urged Australia to increase defence spending; however Marles said the Ghost Shark fleet is funded within the existing defence budget.
The contract with Anduril Australia covers the delivery, maintenance and continued development of the Ghost Shark over the next five years, officials said.
Anduril has been readying a facility in New South Wales for production ahead of any contract. It began working with Australia’s defence force on the development of the Ghost Shark in 2022.
The Ghost Shark had gone rapidly from concept to production in three years because the Royal Australian Navy had taken on shared risk, Anduril Industries said in a statement.
“For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters. Ghost Shark …can directly address this challenge through coastal defence patrols and area-wide domain awareness powered by artificial intelligence at scale,” the Anduril Industries statement said.
Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group has said it wants to incorporate autonomous technology into the defence force because Australia has a vast coastline and up to 3 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles) of northern ocean that needs to be defended, but only a relatively sparse population.
($1 = 1.5168 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Louise Heavens)
