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Australia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that its Ghost Shark autonomous submarine will carry sea mines and swarms of aerial drones, adding strike capability to the undersea vehicle.
Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy told reporters in Sydney, Australia’s largest city on the southeast coast, that officials approved three payloads after secret trials. He said they are meant for tasks officials do not want humans to perform.
The Ghost Shark can carry up to 12 sea mines, special forces equipment, and Anduril’s Altius aerial drone. The drone can be launched at sea and used in swarms for reconnaissance and strike, Conroy said.
He said potential adversaries must consider that any shipping container at an Australian wharf could hold a Ghost Shark. The submarines “now have teeth,” he said.
U.S. defense technology start-up Anduril developed the extra-large submarine drone jointly with Australian defense scientists. The company is building a fleet for Canberra under an $1.8 billion contract.
The Ghost Shark can travel long distances and would operate alongside the crewed submarine fleet, officials said. Conroy said several other countries have expressed interest in acquiring it.
The AUKUS partners, Australia, Britain and the United States, pledged this year to develop interchangeable payloads for undersea warfare drones, in addition to their nuclear submarine cooperation.
Australia is rapidly expanding its investment in drones amid concern about China’s naval build-up and tensions in the South China Sea, a waterway between China and Southeast Asia. The U.S. Navy’s intelligence director told a U.S. government committee in May that China is focused on developing undersea sensors, weapons and autonomous vehicles to counter U.S. submarines.
Anduril won a $2.9 billion U.S. Navy contract earlier this month to build components for the Virginia-class submarine and said it will build a new submarine shipyard in the United States. Washington is seeking to speed up production so it can sell the submarines to Australia under AUKUS.
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