Overview
- Australia disclosed on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, that three modular payloads have been approved for the Ghost Shark programme: sea mines, Altius aerial loitering munitions, and underwater supply caches.
- Each Ghost Shark can carry up to 12 sea mines and can launch swarms of Anduril’s Altius drones that perform reconnaissance and carry small explosive warheads for strike missions.
- The fleet is being built in Sydney under roughly A$1.7–1.8 billion in contracts with Anduril as part of a broader A$5.8 billion investment in autonomous undersea warfare, and the first production vessel has already been delivered to the Royal Australian Navy.
- Some payloads and enabling systems, including a towed-sonar fit for BlueBottle surface vessels, will be shown this week at the AUKUS Pillar II Maritime Big Play Pacific exercise to test interoperability and common standards with the US and UK.
- Defence officials say the modular, container-deployable Ghost Sharks expand Australia’s ability to deny access and strike far from home while reducing risk to sailors, but the programme raises questions about costs, the relationship to the nuclear‑submarine plan, and the operational and ethical implications of autonomous lethal systems.