Anduril Pioneers Massive Long-Endurance Undersea Sub-Like Drone

By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News  

The Southern California-based high-tech company best known for its aerial drones and its semi-portable surveillance systems is now turning the spotlight on its undersea unmanned vehicles. 

   An Extra-Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (XL-AUV) built by Anduril Industries just concluded a 100-hour voyage, which the company says is the longest ever for a vehicle of this class. According to a news release on Dec. 9, the Dive-XL will conduct a 1,000 nautical mile fully submerged mission in the first half of 2025. 

    In 2022, Anduril announced that the Royal Australian Navy had signed a $100 million contract for three Dive-XL vehicles, which are being used in its Ghost Shark program. Ghost Shark, Anduril says, is a “modular, multi-purpose capability that can flexibly respond to the Australian Defence Force’s mission requirements, creating an agile force multiplier for Defence.” 

   The vessel is designed for underwater intelligence gather and long-range surveillance, and can be deployed from one shipping container. That allows warfighters, according to Anduril, to launch, use and recover the system at sea or ashore with minimal infrastructure and heavy equipment.  

   The company makes it clear that the US is its target market for Dive-XL. 

   “China already has the world’s largest navy, propelled by the world’s largest shipbuilding industry, and the United States and its allies and partners will not be able to close the gap in traditional, crewed ships and submarines on a relevant timeline to bolster deterrence in this decade,” Anduril’s press release says.  

  “We must build fleets of low cost, autonomous assets that deliver enhanced capability at a fraction of the cost. Anduril’s Dive-XL is a critical component of that future, and is ready to deliver at scale.”