Australia to Spend A$1.7 Billion on Stealthy Underwater Attack Drones

Australia will spend 1.7 billion Australian dollars (about $1.1 billion) to build dozens of locally developed underwater attack drones, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Wednesday, marking a major investment in autonomous undersea capabilities.

The first of the stealthy, long-range Ghost Shark vehicles is due to be delivered to the Royal Australian Navy in January under a five-year contract with Sydney-based Anduril Australia. Marles said the program will significantly boost the country’s undersea warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capacities while complementing planned crewed submarine acquisitions under the AUKUS partnership.

Marles would not specify how many Ghost Sharks will be produced but said the navy would receive “dozens” over the next five years. He described the vehicles’ range only as "very long range." The Australian government said the Ghost Shark is designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles as well as strike operations.

The contract follows an earlier agreement with California-based Anduril Industries to produce three Ghost Shark prototypes in 2022. Anduril Australia, the Sydney arm of the company, won the five-year production contract that will see the fleet developed on Australian soil.

Chief of Navy Vice Adm. Mark Hammond said the drones can be launched from shore and from surface ships and predicted the undersea environment will become “increasingly congested and contested.” Hammond said continued investment in autonomous systems alongside crewed platforms will be required to maintain capability advantages with allies and partners.

The investment comes as Australia accelerates efforts to harden its maritime defenses ahead of the arrival of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines planned under the AUKUS security pact with the United States and Britain. Under that partnership, the first of those submarines is not expected to be delivered to Australia until 2032.

Australia’s island geography and dependence on maritime trade routes have made protection of sea lines of communication a strategic priority. Government officials have pointed to recent examples of extended foreign naval operations in the southern Pacific as sharpening the country’s focus on undersea and surface deterrence. A Chinese navy flotilla conducted a live-fire exercise in the sea between Australia and New Zealand in February that analysts said demonstrated an expanded operational reach.

Defence officials said the Ghost Shark program will be built around autonomy, stealth and range to operate in contested waters, but declined to provide technical specifics about speed, endurance or payload. The government emphasized that local construction of the vehicles will support domestic industry and defense sovereignty.

Marles framed the procurement as a forward-leaning step in undersea warfare, saying Australia is “leading the world in terms of autonomous, underwater military capabilities.” The government did not release a detailed production schedule beyond the January delivery milestone or an exact figure for the total number of vehicles to be produced under the contract.

The rollout of the Ghost Shark fleet will be watched by regional partners and potential adversaries alike as nations invest in unmanned and autonomous platforms to extend maritime awareness and strike options. Defence analysts say such systems change operational calculations by increasing persistence in surveillance and providing new options for force projection beneath the surface, but they also raise questions about integration with existing naval forces and rules for employment.

For now, Australian officials have emphasized that the Ghost Shark program is intended to augment, not replace, crewed vessels and submarines, and to provide the navy with additional tools to protect maritime approaches and support allied operations in the Indo-Pacific.