Designing Large Drone Weapons Systems in Australia

Ghost Shark submarines at announcement,
Photo by Anduril 9 September 2025

The Australian Government yesterday announced it will spend $1.7bn on a fleet of several dozen Ghost Shark submarines. These will be uncrewed, and made in Sydney by US company Anduril. This received limited media coverage as most of the capabilities and some of the purposes of the submarines are classified. I was asked to talk about this on ABC Radio Nightlife with Philip Clark at 1 am.

At  approximately 5.8 m, the Ghost Shark is one third to one quarter the length of the USA's Orca extra-large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUUV). The Australian vessel has the advantage of being about the size of a standard shipping container, so it can be transported by truck, train, ship or aircraft. 

The range and power source of the vessel are classified. A reasonable guess is that initial units are powered by lithium batteries, with a diesel engine, which the Orca has,as a later option. Range is likely to be around 1,000 km, far less than the 10,000 km of the Orca, but still with an endurance of several months. These type of XLUUVs are not built for speed, as evidenced by the bulky shape. 

These XLUUVs are likely to be used initially for surveillance, mapping, and patrolling fibre optic cables. They are too small to carry the heavyweight torpedoes used by crewed submarines and too slow for topedio attacks. They are also too small to carry ship or land attack missiles. While minatore torpedoes and missiles are available, the sea mine is likely to be the primary weapon. Australia has already taken delivery of smart sea mines from RWM Italia. These could be laid by the Ghost Shark outside harbours and approaches, programmed to allow civilian to pass, to enforce a blockade. 

Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat at 2023 Avalon Airshow,
Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, 5 March 2023

Australia is also cooperating with Boeing on the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, a moderately stealthy, uncrewed combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). The Ghost Bat has been quietly under development, but came to prominence recently, when Boeing offered it to Poland, to complement F-15 crewed aircraft. The person in the rear seat of the F-15 would control multiple Ghost Bats, each armed with missiles. The  Ghost Bat could also be used to protect surveillance and tanker aircraft, while being controlled from them. Like the Ghost Shark, the Ghost Bat is small enough to be transported easily by road, sea or air. 

Ghost Gecko Concept

A third arm not yet announced for Australia defence is the land equivalent of the Ghosts: a robotic land vehicle. To fill that gap I speculated about a "Ghost Gecko", an Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UCV) for the Australian Army. This  would be derived from the Hawkei four-wheel-drive protected mobility vehicle. The crew cab would be removed, to lighten the vehicle, and lower its profile. In its place would be an Australian made remotely controlled weapons station (RWS), with a cannon and missiles.

The main area for research and development of these platforms is not the hardware. The problem is the level of autonomous control available. Submarines cannot easily communicate when underwater. The Ghost Shark will need to be able to make decisions itself. The Ghost Bat can be communicated with more easily, however ione operator may be controlling multiple aircraft simultaneously, so a level of autonomy is still needed. Land vehicles have fewer issues, except where large numbers are used. These are issues which are addressed in computer and engineering departments of universities world wide, including in Australia.