Anduril seeks to address the “new rules” of maritime sea power through a family of autonomous vehicles and sensors.
Story by Aaron-Matthew Lariosa, video interview by Carter Johnston
Anduril showcased an integrated series of autonomous underwater vehicles and sensors at Sea Air Space 2025, which the defense contractor described as its answer to the “new rules” of maritime sea power.
“What we’re trying to achieve here are new tools for the new rules, if you will, for maritime sea power,” Shane Arnott, Senior Vice President, Programs and Engineering, Maritime Division, explained to Naval News in an interview at Sea Air Space 2025:
A video at the booth depicted Anduril’s capabilities working together to defeat a large fleet of warships. Two new systems deployed via the company’s existing Dive-Extra Large autonomous submarine include the Copperhead series family of high-speed autonomous underwater vehicles and Seabed Sentry.
Copperhead comes in two variants at 100 and 500 pounds respectively that can support warheads and surveillance packages. In their munition configurations, designated as Copperhead-M, Arnott described their capabilities as equatable to the Mk.54 lightweight and Mk.48 heavyweight torpedoes currently in service with the U.S. Navy but at “a fraction of the cost.”
“For the 100, we can pack dozens of those into an [Dive-]XL. For the 500, we can pack multiple, but you’re at a cost point that’s, you know, far cheaper than legacy weapons. And then we can build these things at scale,”
Shane Arnott, Senior Vice President, Programs and Engineering, Anduril’s Maritime Division
Anduril is designing its facilities to support the production of “thousands” of Copperheads annually. Arnott claimed that the same yearly manufacturing period for legacy torpedoes would yield between 100 and 200 munitions.
This was in part due to the design’s unique box shape, which, according to Arnott, streamlined the production process. The shape, which was created from lessons derived from the Dive-XL, allows Copperhead to reach 30 knot speeds.
“It actually swims better, strangely enough. So we’ve learned a lot from the Extra Large vehicle, which is a big box shape. This is more stable and faster in water than the legacy designs, given our software systems. It was something that was pretty wild,” said Arnott.
The design is also ergonomic with the company’s unmanned submarine, permitting the Dive-XL to store more Copperheads.
Arnott stressed the need for more cost-efficient systems to counter modern threats, citing the use of high-end surface-to-air missiles to down cheap drones and Chinese investments into unmanned maritime capabilities.
“Particularly, we’re designing this thing like in the future fight. And you’re already seeing it. The Chinese are investing heavily into UUVs and USVs. And they’re at a cost point that is less than the Mk.48 torpedo. The economics just don’t work.”
“This is designed to deal with all those other threats, or as well be launched in a package against, you know, the higher-end threats.”
Anduril is not looking to backfit Copperhead into the U.S. Navy’s existing attack boat fleet, stating that it was “not the intent at this stage.” Arnott cited a complicated qualification procedure that would be required to operate the autonomous underwater vehicle from the manned submarines.
Seabed Sentry, developed in partnership with Ultra Maritime, was also pitched as a new underwater sensing capability. Arnott highlighted its improvements over traditional, cable-based systems and its use of the company’s Lattice mesh network.
The appearance of these low-cost, mass producible autonomous underwater vehicles and sensors comes amid concerns of Washington’s inadequate munition stockpiles and defense industrial base capability to replenish stocks. Anduril’s “rebuild the arsenal” message and prior products – such as the Barracuda-M family of cruise missiles – have echoed these sentiments.
Dive-XL, Copperhead, and Seabed Sentry also come onto the scene following Indo-Pacific Command’s comments on Hellscape, an unmanned plan termed by Adm. Samuel Paparo designed to blunt a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Anduril’s systems appeared to be defeating a People’s Liberation Army invasion fleet scenario in a conceptual animation displayed by the company at Sea Air Space.
Anduril recently transferred a Dive-LD to the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Group 1 earlier this month. The company tested Ghost Shark, an Autonomous Undersea Vehicle related to Dive-XL, developed for the Royal Australian Navy, at Rim of the Pacific 2024.
