This episode collects a number of interviews recorded at the Indo Pacific 2025 event held in Sydney at the start of November. We start by speaking to Dr Shane Arnott, Chief Engineer at Anduril Industries, about the success of their Ghost Shark unmanned submarine program which has a $170 million contract with the RAN. We also discuss the strategic shift towards unmanned systems for naval operations, and the considerable adoption of such submarines by the Royal Australian Navy. We examine other maritime approaches by Anduril, like its Copperhead (small diameter undersea robot) and Sea Bed Century (subsea sensors), designed to network underwater assets effectively despite challenging communications conditions. We close with an assessment of the immense technological challenge of subsea autonomy compared to other domains and Anduril's approach of rapid iteration through early field testing, rather than relying solely on simulation
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Next up, Grant talks with Antony Penn, Chief Commercial Officer at Exail Robotics. discussing Exail Robotics' long history in mine countermeasures, dating back to its origins as ECA Group in the 1930s. We assess their development of the PAP system for demining and how it became a reference solution. Antony then reviews the company's current autonomous systems designed to detect, classify, identify, and neutralize underwater threats efficiently.
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Finally, Grant speaks with Sam Abbott, Head of Research & Development at Austal Australia, and
Harry Hubbert, Chief Operations Officer and Director at Greenroom Robotics, about Austal Australia's collaboration with Greenroom Robotics on autonomous patrol boats. We delve into their Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial (PBAT), which repurposed a decommissioned vessel that operated autonomously for four days across 700 nautical miles of the WA coast without human intervention. We wrap up by assessing how this partnership is bringing autonomy capabilities to maritime platforms like patrol boats and potentially Border Force vessels.
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Links:
Anduril
www.anduril.com
Exail Robotics' Mine Countermeasures
www.exail.com/product-range/umis-unmanned-mcm-mine-countermeasure-integrated-system
Austal
www.austal.com
Greenroom Robotics
greenroomrobotics.com
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