Australia Unveils ‘Ghost Shark’ Unmanned Submarine Prototype

The testbed for Australia’s “Ghost Shark” unmanned submarine. Photo: VADM Mark Hammond RAN

Australia has unveiled an early prototype of its “Ghost Shark” unmanned submarine for testing and experimentation.

A 2.8-ton “Dive-LD” autonomous submarine testbed arrived in the country recently, marking a significant milestone in the extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (XL-AUV) program.

The testbed, which has a length of 5.6 meters (19 feet), can conduct autonomous missions at a depth of 6,000 meters (3.7 miles). It can also stay underwater for up to 10 days. According to Australian Navy Rear Admiral Peter Quinn, the country’s future software-driven submarine will serve as a force multiplier for the Australian military.

“Ghost Shark will join Ghost Bat and other autonomous systems as our investment in smart artificial intelligence-enabled technologies come to fruition,” he said. “Our recently released [plan] includes the rapid development of combat ready prototypes to accelerate operational deployment of game changing capabilities such as Ghost Shark,” Quinn added. Australia’s XL-AUV program is a new three-year initiative that would see the government spend up to 140 million Australian dollars ($100 million).

As part of the effort, Anduril Industries will design, develop, and manufacture three Ghost Sharks for the Navy. The drone submarines will be modular, customizable, and suitable for various payloads to support a wide range of missions.

“There is a clear need for an XL-AUV built in Australia, for Australia,” Anduril founder Palmer Luckey said. “The XL-AUV will harness the latest developments in autonomy, edge computing, sensor fusion, propulsion, and robotics to bring advanced capability to the Royal Australian Navy.”

Once in service, Canberra’s Ghost Sharks will perform advanced intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting operations. Source: Defpost

SYDNEY — Defense technology upstart Anduril Industries unveiled its first early prototype drone sub for Australia here today, months earlier than required.

As part of the rollout, the $140 million system — the first of three submarines under contract for the Aussies — was also given an official name. In a nod to the Ghost Bat unmanned aircraft developed by Boeing Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force, the new autonomous and unmanned weapon will be known as Ghost Shark.

On top of showing off the prototype, to be used for testing and concept definition, Rear Adm. Peter Quinn made clear the still-to-come larger, schoolbus-sized system may carry warheads.

“Due to their range, stealth and persistence Ghost Shark will be able to operate throughout the Indo-Pacific. Due to its modular and multi-role nature, our adversaries will need to assume that their every move in the maritime domain is subject to our surveillance and that every XL-UV (drone) is capable of deploying a wide range of effects — including lethal ones,” Quinn told a small audience of government officials, officers and journalists. “Once your potential adversaries understand what a Ghost Shark is — not that we’re going to give them any specifics at all — we expect they will generate doubt and uncertainty.”

Then he delivered the best line of the day, greeted with appreciative laughter from the crowd: “Hopefully, they’ll even start hearing the Jaws theme in their head if they suspect one is about.”

The prototype shown can, the company said in a statement, “autonomously conduct missions for up to 10 days along the seafloor at up to 6,000 meters deep.” Presumably larger versions of the design will be even more capable.

One of the key differences from a traditional manned sub is that most of this weapon can be flooded, with sensors and weapons encased in pressure sanctuaries, instead of the entire hull being primarily designed to protect the fragile humans inside.

One of the most striking aspects of the Ghost Shark program has been its velocity. As Tanya Monroe, the chief scientist for Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Group, pointed out, the Department of Defence was able “to go from the first conversation to a signed contract of sale within 161 days. That’s evidence to a new way of working and a way of working that I think we need to do much more of in the future.”

But there is clearly still a long way to go before the Concepts of Operation and missions for the Ghost Shark are clearly defined and ready for deployment.

In an extended interview with RAN Commodore Darron Kavanagh, director general of warfare innovation for the service, he made clear there is considerable work to do on ensuring the autonomous and artificial intelligence systems behave exactly as the RAN wants them to, including clear and explicit limits on lethal action.

“Now, these are quite exotic,” Kavanagh said. “So having swarms of them, I wouldn’t foresee in the short term. But of course, as you bring down the cost of these, and you get better at understanding how to safely use the artificial intelligence — because this is the key about how we ensure that what we do with actually the management of artificial intelligence, and how we keep control of it is really paramount to defense. We’re very strong on that view about how we will control artificial intelligence.”

And the Ghost Shark program will play a key role, along with Ghost Bat, in helping the Australian Department of Defence and its services build a policy infrastructure to ensure AI does what the government wants it to do when it wants to do it, and in a manner consistent with Australian law and policy.

“It allows us to actually use our regulatory system to build that understanding. So one of the things that’s happening here is not only is it about an extra large UV — it’s actually about how do we, with disruptive technology, particularly artificial intelligence, how do we actually commercially do it? How do we work with industry to do it?” Kavanagh said. “How do we make our regulators more empowered to deal with autonomy?”

Kavanagh would not be drawn on any links between Ghost Shark and the nascent nuclear attack sub force, but sources at the event did say the system could be controlled from a variety of domains. That could allow them to be fed new missions remotely. And Quinn noted Anduril’s modular, software-driven approach means “we can reprogram mid-mission and switch payloads in and out. Software enabled autonomy can significantly increase Navy’s capabilities, but it becomes even more potent when integrated into sophisticated and cost-effective hardware systems.”