The first of what Anduril says will be “dozens” of Ghost Shark Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (XL-AUVs) for the Royal Australian Navy has rolled off the production line at the company’s new manufacturing facility in Sydney.
The milestone was announced at the facility’s opening ceremony on Friday, attended by Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, Anduril Senior Vice-President Shane Arnott and Anduril CEO and Chairman Australia David Goodrich. Anduril said the XL-AUV is now ready for sea acceptance testing ahead of planned delivery to the RAN in January 2026.
Conroy praised the speed of development, noting the program moved from concept to delivered prototypes in less than three years. “Ghost Shark is an exemplar of how the Government and Defence is partnering with innovative companies to rapidly deliver capability to the warfighter,” he said, adding that all three prototypes were delivered on budget and ahead of schedule.
Goodrich framed the factory opening as a step toward sovereign undersea capability. “Today marks a defining moment in our mission to bring sovereign undersea capability to Australia. With the opening of this new facility, we are not only building local infrastructure and workforce — we are investing in innovation, in partnerships, and in the future defence of our nation,” he said.
Anduril reported the latest Ghost Shark was delivered under a A$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) contract announced about seven weeks earlier. The Sydney plant — designed to build both the Ghost Shark XL and its commercial baseline, the Dive-XL — includes integrated robotic production, AI ground vehicles and a bespoke test tank for in-water verification of buoyancy, electrical systems and safety prior to sea trials.
The company said it will ramp up from low-rate production to full-scale output in 2026 and plans to deliver the Ghost Shark fleet to the RAN over the next five years. Anduril also signalled interest in exporting Ghost Sharks to allied and partner nations in future, subject to Australian government export approvals.
Australia intends to use the XL-AUVs for stealthy, long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — and potentially strike — operations to complement its surface combatants and the nuclear-powered submarines planned under the AUKUS partnership. The Ghost Shark program began in May 2022 under a co-development agreement between Anduril, the Royal Australian Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Group.