Australia to display the fleet of folded underwater drones

Australia will spend $ 1.1 billion to build dozens of submarine drones developed locally, Defense Minister Richard Marles said Wednesday.

The first of the “ghost” long -range and long -range sharks will be delivered to the Australian Navy in January next year under a five -year contract with Anduril Australia, based in Sydney, Marles said.

“Australia leads the world in terms of autonomous and underwater military capacities,” Marles told reporters in Sydney.

Large autonomous submarine vehicles would significantly increase the submarine war capabilities of Australia, complementing a fleet of submarines Promoted with the nuclear technology of the United StatesSaid Marles.

The first of those submarines provided under the Aukus association With the United States and Britain will not be delivered to Australia until 2032.

Marles would not say precisely how many ghost sharks would be built. But he said that Australia’s Navy would receive “dozen” in the next five years.

Nor would I comment on the range of ghost sharks in addition to describing it as “very long range.”

As island continent and a commercial nation, Australia sees the possibility that their maritime routes are blocked by an enemy as a great strategic threat.

A flotilla of the Chinese Navy carried out a living fire exercise in the sea between Australia and New Zealand in February in what was considered widely as a demonstration of China’s growing military reach.

The flotilla almost completely circumnavigated Australia. The Chinese army rarely travels to the south.

Anduril Industries, based in California, was hired in 2022 to produce three prototypes of ghost sharks for the Australian Navy.

The ghost shark is designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and recognition roles, as well as strike operations, said a government statement.

The Vice Admiral of the Chief of the Navy, Mark Hammond, said the drones could be launched from the shore and from the surface ships.

Hammond said he expected the “underwater battle space” to be more and more congested.

“I think our allies and partners will continue to enjoy a capacity advantage in that space whenever we invest in capabilities such as Ghost Shark and others, as well as our manned systems in the coming years,” Hammond said.

Last year, the association announced that Japan would work with Aukus On maritime autonomy and, according to the official, there are also conversations with Canada, South Korea and New Zealand about potential projects on emerging capacities.

Last month, Australia said she would also update her navy with 11 Mogami class frigates built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, which entered the service for the first time by 2030.

Considered as one of the largest defense export agreements in Japan since World War II, Australia agreed to pay US $ 6 billion in the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealthy frigates.

War ships of the Mogami class, advanced stealth frigates equipped with a powerful variety of weapons) are to replace the Australian Anzac class fleet.

Porcelain has accused Aukus of provoking A nuclear arms race and interrupting peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Agance France-Presse contributed to this report.

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