SYDNEY — The Australian government disclosed on 19 October the first specific weapons and payloads for the Ghost Shark extra-large uncrewed undersea vehicle, saying the Anduril-built boat can carry up to 12 sea mines at a time, release swarms of tube-launched Altius loitering munitions, and deliver seabed logistics caches developed by Defence’s Science and Technology Group. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy made the announcement at Anduril’s facility in New South Wales.
Why it matters
Until now the Ghost Shark program had been described in terms of tasks — intelligence, surveillance, strike, seabed operations, protection of undersea infrastructure — without naming what the vehicle would actually carry. The payload list converts a A$1.7 billion production contract, signed in September 2025 for a fleet Conroy will quantify only as “dozens and dozens,” into a mine-laying and strike capability. The surrounding commitment is larger: the 2026 National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program set aside up to A$5.8 billion over the decade for autonomous and uncrewed undersea warfare.
Mine-laying is the part that changes the arithmetic. Twelve mines is a modest load next to a crewed submarine, but an XL-AUV carries them into contested water without risking sailors and, Anduril argues, at a materially lower cost per sortie. Defence did not disclose the Altius swarm size or the mine type. Anduril Australia chief executive David Goodrich said the payload bays also accommodate heavyweight and lightweight torpedoes, and put the program’s Australian supply chain at 42 companies and his own headcount at 350.
Some of the payloads are already going to sea. They feature in Exercise Maritime Big Play Pacific, an AUKUS Pillar II event hosted by Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific near San Diego from 5 to 25 October — the fourth iteration of a series used to test allied payload interoperability. Defence named two further hosts beyond Ghost Shark: the Speartooth UUV, and the Ocius Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessel, which is to receive a thin-line towed array sonar for anti-submarine and seabed surveillance work. Anduril’s Dive-XL, the baseline design behind Ghost Shark, was selected by the U.S. Navy for its own extra-large AUV program in March 2026.
“Those Ghost Sharks now have teeth. Teeth with the ability to deny areas through them through mining.”
Pat Conroy, Australian Minister for Defence Industry, 19 October 2026
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