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According to an excellent Reuters article, the Ghost Shark is part of a two-pronged advanced submarine approach the Australian Royal Navy is taking to meet the challenge of a rising China: on one side, 13 nuclear-powered attack subs that will cost $18 billion apiece and won’t finish being delivered until after 2050, on the other, “three unmanned subs, powered by artificial intelligence, called Ghost Sharks. The navy will spend just over AUD$23 million each for them – less than a tenth of 1% of the cost of each nuclear sub Australia will get. And the Ghost Sharks will be delivered by mid-2025.”
That starkly illustrates the difference between the way things are and the way Anduril thinks they should be.
Dive’s Australian contract may be the first of many. Japan, an island, is tripling its defense budget to become the third highest in the world next year to prepare for the threat from an adversary on their doorstep, and the program might also serve as a test run the US Navy uses to evaluate purchasing Dive-LD AUVs for its own fleet.