In addition to its obsession with building nuclear submarines under the AUKUS (Australia – United Kingdom – United States) pact, the Australian Navy apparently also has other projections to strengthen its underwater power line.
To be precise, the Australian Department of Defense has announced a project to develop an unmanned vehicle called XLAUV (Extra–Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle).
Quoted from 9news.com.au (5/5/2022), Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton announced the disbursement of Aus$2 million for investment in the development of underwater drones for the needs of the Australian Navy (RAN). Peter Dutton's announcement became interesting, especially in the midst of tensions between Australia and China in the South Pacific region.
“The XLAUV is an underwater robot with cutting-edge technology,” said Dutton. He added that the XLAUV is stealth, multi-role and can operate at depths of between 10 and 30 meters, with the capacity to carry a wide range of military payloads over long distances."
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| Anduril Dive-LD |
The Royal Australian Navy will build 3 prototype XLAUV units. This project will run for 3 years. However, it is not known whether the XLAUV project is linked to the AUKUS pact or purely a Canberra initiative. To run the XLAUV project, the Australian Department of Defense has selected a US company that has invested in Australia, Anduril.
Anduril is a lesser known, but significant player in the production arena of Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV). They already have a large displacement UUV design, namely the Dive-LD. XLAUV appears to be an extended version of Dive-LD.
The Dive-LD has a length of 5.8 meters, a diameter of 1.2 meters and a dry weight of 2,720 kg. The speed of this underwater drone is between 2-7 knots but its range is more than 313 nautical miles.
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