Anduril to Build Extra Large AUVs for Royal Australian Navy

Defense technology company Anduril Industries has entered into commercial negotiations with the  Australian Defence Force for a US$100 million co-funded design, development, and manufacturing program for Extra Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (XL-AUVs) for the Royal Australian Navy.

According to Anduril, the XL-AUV will be an affordable, autonomous, long-endurance, multi-mission capable AUV. 

"It is modular, customizable, and can be optimized with a variety of payloads for a wide range of military and non-military missions such as advanced intelligence, infrastructure inspection, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting. Anduril’s approach to development of the XL-AUV will deliver the vehicle at a fraction of the cost of existing undersea capabilities in radically lower timeframes," Anduril said.

There will be three prototypes delivered to the Royal Australian Navy over the three-year life of the program.

Anduril will design, develop and manufacture the XL-AUVs in Australia. For this, the company has promised to recruit, build and retain a highly skilled workforce. 

"To support the design, development and manufacturing of the program Anduril plans to hire dozens of employees in high skilled roles including maritime engineering, software development, advanced manufacturing, robotics, propulsion design, mission operations and more. In addition, Anduril will actively partner with other Australian SMEs and the research and technology communities to source nearly all elements of the supply chain for the program," Anduril said.

“The XL-AUV project is a significant investment in Australian industrial capabilities,” said David Goodrich, OAM, Exec Chairman and CEO, Anduril Australia. “Through this partnership, Anduril Australia will become a major player in the thriving defence industrial base in Australia and contribute to Australia becoming a leading exporter of cutting-edge autonomous capability to the rest of the world.”

"There is a clear need for an XL-AUV built in Australia, for Australia,” said Palmer Luckey, Anduril Founder. "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.”