Military

Ghost Shark: The huge stealth advantage of autonomous submarines

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Artist's concept of Ghost Shark
Australian Government
Ghost Shark being launched
Australian Government
Ghost Shark on the pier
Australian Government
Artist's concept of Ghost Shark
Australian Government
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Australia's robotic submarine program is a year ahead of schedule as the government takes delivery of the first Ghost Shark Extra-Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (XL-AUV) prototype, with three more to follow next year.

The Australian defense sector has had a reputation for being something of a backwater, but the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific region, saber rattling by China, and North Korea taking missile pot shots over Japan has changed that. Today, the Australian defense budget is undergoing a massive increase, there's a greater emphasis on domestic defense production, and the Royal Australian Navy is working with the US, Britain, and (perhaps) Japan to acquire long-range nuclear attack submarines capable of operating north of the continent.

Part of this new strategy involves developing autonomous platforms that can act as force multipliers. Instead of just sending out submarine patrols, Canberra wants to include autonomous drones that can operate for long durations without a crew to increase the capabilities of the patrols.

Developed by the Defence Department and Anduril Australia along with industry partners, Ghost Shark is described as "Mission Zero" for the government's Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA). The craft is part of the government's project to build or acquire subsea warfare capabilities and new autonomous and uncrewed underwater vehicles, which was supposed to take three years to create the first prototype but is ahead of schedule.

Ghost Shark on the pier
Australian Government

Though not many details have been given about the specifications of the craft, it's smaller than a conventional submarine because it doesn't require the pressure-proof hull for a crew or the complex sound-deadening equipment needed to muffle the noise of the submariners' moving about and their life support equipment. Instead, the machinery and electronics are set in watertight modules.

When deployed, Ghost Shark will allow the Royal Australian Navy to carry out stealthy, long-range autonomous undersea warfare with persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike capabilities. The craft will be able to work with Navy and allied vessels as part of the AUKUS treaty.

"This collaboration combines Navy’s expertise, ASCA’s speed to delivery, Defence’s scientific smarts and Anduril Australia’s experience in agile innovation," said Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond. "We are a nation girt by sea, and the Ghost Shark is one of the tools we are developing for the Navy to patrol and protect our oceans and our connection to the world."

Source: Australian Government

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4 comments
Robt
Re: It’s smaller because there’s no crew etc..
That seems logical apart from the ‘pressure-proof hull’ comment.
If you go to certain depths, your hull better be pressure proof, otherwise you won’t have a sub for very long; crew or no crew
yawood
@Robt Existing submarines have a casing around the pressure-proof hull, inside which certain things can be carried. These are flooded areas so it does not matter how deep the submarines go they can't collapse. It is the same with this vessel. As the article says, the machinery and electronics are set in water-tight modules which implies that the rest will be flooded. The water-tight modules will be pressure-proof to a certain depth (I imagine, much greater than would be necessary with a crewed vessel with a large pressurised area). You are right in that even this will collapse eventually but the pressure-proof areas that contain machinery and electronics is much smaller and thus more easily constructed. There is also a great deal of machinery in a crewed submarine that is just there to keep the crew alive and all this can be discarded.
rgbatduke
In the next war, unmanned autonomous and semi-autonomous "drone" weapons will be killing humans with an efficiency unparalleled across history. Imagine a rapid fire weapon that can detect humans at extreme range and deliver bullets or cannon shells with a "one shot, one kill" capability, mounted on a self-driving mini-tank. Imagine the submarine above armed with stealth smart torpedo drones, invisible to the attacked vessel, perhaps even slowly moving or emulating a dolphin or shark with natural swimming motions. We already have seen the devastating effects of smart aerial or surface naval drones of almost any size -- even "toys" repurposed to carry and drop grenades or armed with explosives and guided at high speed into targets a million times their value and crewed by many humans.

And, there is nothing we can do about it. They are being designed and built by almost every country because, well, they can. And if they don't, their neighbor will, and then who knows what could happen.

We had a narrow window for the world to wake up and establish freedom and global equity as moral virtues and put an end to empire building disguised or not as religious wars. That window is closing, if not closed. We are about to embark on a stretch that will make old humans like myself long for the days of the good old cold war. Back then it was ONLY nuclear annihilation that threatened the world per se -- in the coming decades it will be global thermonuclear war on steroids, plus semi-autonomous armed killing machines under the direct control of -- the greatest possible danger -- a handful of humans whose sole goal is to be the last empire builder standing and set up global hegemony.
Adrian Akau
Good technology.