Anduril Industries unveiled a new family of autonomous underwater vehicles called Copperhead, designed to meet military and commercial needs for larger fleets of uncrewed maritime vessels.
“Copperhead enables a comprehensive, intelligent maritime capability that allows operators to quickly respond to threats in the undersea battlespace, at a fraction of the cost of legacy options,” the company said in a statement Monday.
The product line includes two variants, each offered in two different sizes. The baseline Copperhead is designed for rapid-response missions, the firm said, including environmental monitoring, search and rescue and infrastructure inspection.
The vehicle, which can reach speeds greater than 30 knots, can carry a range of payloads, including active and passive sensors and magnetometers, which can detect changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.
The Copperhead-M variant is a munition that can be deployed from a larger system, specifically Anduril’s Dive-LD and Dive-XL vessels. It offers “torpedo-like” capabilities and is designed for mass production, Anduril said.
A Dive-XL can carry dozens of the smaller Copperhead-M and “multiple” of the larger size missile.
“This makes it possible for a fleet of Dive-XLs to control ocean areas with an unprecedented level of autonomous seapower,” Anduril said.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
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