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Australia Commits $1.1 Billion to Anduril “Ghost Shark” Undersea Drone Fleet

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Australia will invest A$1.7 billion ($1.1 billion) in a fleet of Ghost Shark autonomous undersea vehicles, co-developed with U.S. defense startup Anduril Industries, to strengthen surveillance and long-range strike capabilities, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced Wednesday.

Key Details

  • Purpose: Ghost Sharks will complement Australia’s surface fleet and submarines, offering enhanced intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and strike capabilities.

  • Timeline: First drones to enter service in January 2026.

  • Production: Dozens to be built at Anduril’s Australian facility in New South Wales, with export opportunities for allies.

  • Deployment: Can operate from bases, navy vessels, or be air-transported for forward deployment.

Strategic Context

  • Part of Australia’s efforts to counter China’s growing naval presence in the Indo-Pacific.

  • Complements AUKUS plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. and UK in the 2030s.

  • Ghost Shark’s autonomous design addresses Australia’s challenge of defending its vast 3 million sq km northern ocean zone with a relatively small population.

Defence & Industry Perspectives

  • Navy Chief Mark Hammond: Ghost Shark enhances operations in the contested and opaque undersea battlespace.

  • Minister Pat Conroy: Highlights long-range strike capacity and export potential.

  • Anduril Industries: Describes the project as AI-powered coastal defense with rapid development achieved in just three years due to shared risk with the Royal Australian Navy.

Budget & Oversight

  • Funded within existing defence budget, despite U.S. President Donald Trump urging higher Australian defense spending under the AUKUS framework.

  • The contract covers delivery, maintenance, and ongoing development over the next five years.

Ukraine Leverages Massive Drone Data Trove to Advance AI for Battlefield Applications

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In its ongoing conflict with Russia, Ukraine has amassed an unprecedented resource: a trove of over 2 million hours of drone footage that is now being utilized to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems for battlefield decision-making. This immense dataset offers potential advancements in combat tactics, target identification, and weapon system analysis, highlighting the increasing role of AI in modern warfare.

Oleksandr Dmitriev, the founder of OCHI, a Ukrainian non-profit organization, explained that his system centralizes and analyzes video feeds from more than 15,000 frontline drone crews. Originally developed in 2022 to provide military commanders with real-time battlefield overviews, OCHI has since evolved into a repository of valuable combat data. According to Dmitriev, “This is food for the AI: If you want to teach an AI, you give it 2 million hours (of video), it will become something supernatural.”

The footage enables AI models to learn how to identify targets, evaluate combat strategies, and optimize weapon trajectories. Dmitriev likened this process to transforming human battlefield experience into mathematical models. On average, the OCHI system collects five to six terabytes of new drone footage daily, further enriching the dataset.

Experts agree on the significance of this data pool. Samuel Bendett, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Center for a New American Security, emphasized the importance of training AI systems to distinguish between various battlefield elements such as roads, natural obstacles, and ambush sites. Meanwhile, Kateryna Bondar from the Wadhwani AI Center stressed that the dataset’s size and image quality are crucial for enabling AI models to recognize targets based on shapes and colors accurately.

In addition to OCHI, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has developed another AI-driven system called Avengers. While specific details about Avengers remain classified, the ministry previously revealed that it uses AI tools to identify up to 12,000 Russian military assets weekly.

AI is also being integrated into other military technologies in Ukraine. Thousands of drones are already operating autonomously, executing missions without human pilots. Ukrainian developers are exploring drone swarms—interlinked systems of drones capable of coordinated operations under a unified command. AI is further assisting in demining efforts to clear war-torn territories.

Russia, too, has been leveraging AI on the battlefield. Notably, its Lancet strike drones use AI for target recognition, demonstrating lethal effectiveness against Ukrainian armored vehicles.

With foreign allies showing interest in Ukraine’s AI capabilities, Dmitriev’s OCHI system exemplifies how technological innovation is reshaping the dynamics of modern warfare.