US defence technology company Anduril is close to completing its recruitment of underwater specialists for its startup Sydney research and development facility for which it is developing a harbourside site, Anduril Australia CEO David Goodrich told ADM.
Goodrich said the company was delighted with the response to its advertisements and briefings not only from well-qualified applicants in Australia but also from Australians overseas who saw an opportunity to return home to what they viewed as an unusually interesting technical program.
The research and development facility would be the company’s first outside the US and would also incorporate a low-rate manufacturing capability, Goodrich said. The facility’s precise location on the harbour has yet to be disclosed.
Anduril Australia signed a $140 million contract with Defence in March to co-fund the design, development and construction of three prototype extra-large autonomous undersea vehicles (XL-AUV) within three years, in partnership with the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG).
Anduril is contributing $70 million to the XL-AUV project together with the IP from its recently-acquired US AUV manufacturer Dive Technologies as a starting point. That company’s three-ton Dive-LD is able to autonomously conduct missions of up to 10 days at depth of up to 6,000 meters.
“Each of the XL-AUVs will be iterative; we’re not just building three of the same vehicle. They’ll be the size of a school bus and they’ll be delivered over the three-year life of the program at a fraction of the cost of existing underseas capabilities, using agile and smart manufacturing techniques and a novel system architecture,” Goodrich said.
“Each sub-system is individually sealed and pressure-proof within the wet hull, which is flooded. That makes it very easy for us to add new modules and also makes it very easy to make the vehicle larger or smaller because we can just stretch out the body, stretch out the skin and make more room without having to make a brand-new pressure hull,” he stated.
“The XL-AUV is not going to require too much that is radically new; no new science is required, it’s just good solid productionisation and engineering, which means that we can bring it fast to market.”
The prototypes will be integrated with Anduril’s Lattice operating system, the company’s artificial intelligence-powered open architecture system that uses computer vision, machine learning and mesh networking to fuse real-time data from Anduril’s own and third-party hardware into a single, unified operating picture allowing one person to control multiple systems.
The company’s emphasis on agility and technology responsiveness had received a positive response in recent briefings to senior Defence personnel in Canberra – something already proven by the XL-AUV contract being signed just five months after first contact, Goodrich noted.
Anduril’s business model involved the five-year-old company, now valued at around US$9 billion, “using its own money to decide what to develop and by the time we’re talking to government we already have a working capability,” he said.
Anduril Australia had now engaged with 45 separate Australian companies – primarily SMEs – and the intention was to use the maximum amount of Australian industry capability on XL-AUV and future programs.