Press Conference, Sydney

SUBJECTS: Uncrewed maritime and undersea capabilities; HMAS Leeuwin; Ghost Bat; Jacqui Lambie

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY:... This is the best extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle in the world, something that can be deployed from a shipping container or from the back of quite a small ship anywhere in our waters. Its ability to be deployed using a crane from a wharf where you could have pre-deployed shipping [inaudible] means that this is incredibly mobile, this is incredibly deployable. It places question marks in adversaries’ minds.

And there’s no doubt that Australia leads the world in autonomous maritime vessels, whether it’s the Ghost Shark, whether it’s the Ocius Bluebottle, where I had the privilege of opening the factory quite close to where we are now last week with Admiral Buckley, or Speartooth. In every range of maritime vessels we’ve got some very significant autonomy happening.

And this is about giving greater deterrence to the Royal Australian Navy, the Navy that’s increasing in size through the acquisition of the Hunter-class frigates and the general-purpose frigates that will be accompanied by a range of autonomous vessels to do things that we don’t want humans to do or to do things in advance of humans.

Today is a really significant day. Today we’re announcing three payloads for the Ghost Shark that have been previously secret, that are now being revealed. Let me repeat that – three secret payloads we’re now publicising to the Australian public and potential adversaries.

Today we’re revealing to the world that the Ghost Shark will have a capability to deploy sea mines that you see over to the left. It will have the ability to deploy logistical caches, so think of compartments containing equipment produced by the Defence Science and Technology Group [inaudible]. And thirdly, the Ghost Shark will have the capability to deploy the ALTIUS uncrewed aerial vehicle. The ALTIUS vehicle will have the ability to do intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, but also to do strike.

So let me repeat that – we are deploying three previously secret payloads for the Ghost Shark, two of them that have a kinetic effect, two of them that have the ability to strike opponents, those being the sea mines and the ALTIUS uncrewed vehicle. The sea mines you can see behind me, we’ll have the ability to deploy 12 of those sea mines through the Ghost Shark at any one time. And we’ll have the ability to release swarms of ALTIUS loitering munitions for aerial strike.

So from today I’m happy to announce that Ghost Shark now has teeth. The Ghost Shark now has teeth and will have the ability to inflict damage on any potential adversary.

We’re also now announcing today the first payload for the Ocius Bluebottle, which will be a thin-lined towed array sonar that will have the ability to detect submarines. So yet again we’re adding more capability to our autonomous systems.

These systems will be deployed later this week to the AUKUS Pillar 2 Maritime Big Play in San Diego. Earlier this year, the Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, with his counterparts, announced the first marquee project for AUKUS Pillar 2 will be development of payloads and sensors for autonomous vessels. So the ones you see to the left of me are obviously options that we will be putting forward to our partners for AUKUS Pillar 2.

So today is an historic day for the Royal Australian Navy. Today is a day where the most advanced extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle in the world, the Ghost Shark, has teeth and has the ability to deploy anywhere along our coast to deter potential adversaries.

I’ll now hand over to Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Buckley, to make some comments.

CHIEF OF NAVY, VICE ADMIRAL MATT BUCKLEY: Well, thank you, minister. And good afternoon, everyone. Our security and prosperity are inseparable from our maritime domain. And as our undersea environment becomes increasingly contested, it’s important that we continue to evolve how we understand, operate, and deliver capability beneath the sea.

Given the vastness of our maritime geography, the ability to rapidly deliver uncrewed systems adds numbers to our fleets and complements our crews, ships and submarines. This particular project that we’re talking about today, related to the Ghost Shark and other undersea vehicles, is an important investment in autonomous and uncrewed maritime systems. It includes, as the minister said, a number of advanced payloads, and they’re all designed around our evolving mission requirements.

All of this work directly supports my commander’s intent focused on our people, our platforms, our partners and how we do things with purpose. In terms of our people, they remain the centre of all that we do. But we must equip our sailors and officers with the skills, tools and operational advantage to meet emerging challenges and to animate new technologies such as the uncrewed systems like the Ghost Shark.

In terms of our platforms themselves, of course they must continue to evolve, and the evolution of modular payloads that we can fit to uncrewed vessels like the Ghost Shark, like the Speartooth, like the Bluebottle creates enormous flexibility for us and allows us to adapt these systems to future missions and future requirements.

The work that we’re doing with our partners such as the Defence Science and Technology Group, other stakeholders in defence, defence industry and our AUKUS partners is going to allow us to accelerate this innovation and ensure these technologies are integrated in the wider force.

Our purpose is clear – we need to deliver capability at the speed of relevance, strengthen our ability to conduct undersea warfare and seabed operations, contribute to sea denial and help protect our critical undersea infrastructure. It’s not simply about delivering and developing autonomous systems; it is about delivering a lethal combined fleet of crewed and uncrewed ships and submarines that strengthens our navy and will protect our national interest. Thank you.

CEO OF ANDURIL DAVID GOODRICH: Well, it’s a great privilege to have you all here today – Minister for Defence Industry, Chief of Navy, Chief Defence Scientist and members of the media. Welcome back to Anduril Australia’s Ghost Shark factory. A little over a year ago, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Defence Industry and the then Chief of Navy, now Chief of Defence Force, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, announced the signing of the $1.7 billion Ghost Shark at-scale production contract. At the time, the ministers had plenty of armchair experts who questioned the DPM’s description of Ghost Shark as the world’s most capable and potent extra large autonomous undersea platform. Today’s announcement by the minister of the first three payloads demonstrates the substance behind that statement and shows the program is continuing to deliver on the government’s promises.

It’s a real pleasure to have you here for another major milestone for this program, a program that is moving at extraordinary pace. Ghost Shark began as a shared vision and focus between the Albanese Government, Defence and Anduril to develop and produce a world-leading autonomous undersea capability designed, engineered and produced by Australians in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and then for potential export to our allies and partners around the world.

Anduril co-funded the program with Defence and delivered three prototypes, three important and critical payloads in only three years. Our Australian team did all of this ahead of schedule and on budget.

The $1.7 billion program of record has taken Ghost Shark from a development contract to at-scale production, with now over 42 Australian companies working side by side with us every single day. As you can see behind me, we are in the process of delivering the dozens and dozens of Ghost Sharks to the Royal Australian Navy, and we did the first delivery only three months after we signed the program of record contract.

We could not do this – I’ll say again, we could not do this – without the continued close partnership and support of the Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group led by Deputy Secretary David Hanley, the Defence Science and Technology Group led by Chief Scientist, Professor Tanya Monro, and the Royal Australian Navy led by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Matt Buckley, and their amazing teams.

Each step down this pathway has answered an important question: could Australian industry design and engineer such a cutting-edge capability? Could we produce it at scale in Australia? And could we deliver it into the navy’s fleet at the speed of relevance? The answer to each and every one of these questions is yes.

Today we seek to answer the next important question: what can Ghost Shark do and how will it be a game changer for the defence of our nation. As you know, Australia is a three-ocean nation with 37,000 kilometres of coastline and the third largest exclusive economic zone on the planet, almost twice the size of our continental landmass. But the context is important here, too. The Defence Strategic Review stated that the geopolitical circumstances had changed and become a lot less predictable. The Minister for Defence Industry’s announcement of the Ghost Shark’s first missions demonstrates the government’s commitment and courage to step up, meet and fund this challenge.

Today highlights the rapid maturity of the Ghost Shark program, transforming it from a highly capable mechanism for delivery to a proven, potent and mission-ready capability being delivered at scale. The reality is that to protect a country the size of ours requires the fusion of crewed and uncrewed capabilities, embracing autonomy, persistence, mass, and superior technology.

The first missions and payloads now show Ghost Shark’s initial operating capacity. More importantly, they give the public a glimpse into the unlimited future potential capabilities the program will deliver over the coming years. The critical and varied nature of the missions are why we designed Ghost Shark as an adaptable modular platform. To support navy’s evolving and rapidly changing requirements, Ghost Shark must also quickly and rapidly adapt, and we are doing this.

We are able to integrate new payloads, test missions and provide potent options to navy faster than the threats can evolve. This allows the navy to project impactful operational performance at scale at a fraction of the cost of traditional surface and subsurface assets alone and without putting sailors in harm’s way. Ghost Shark will do the dull, dirty and dangerous missions previously tasked to our talented and courageous sailors, levering them to do the high-value missions and jobs.

So the capabilities that the payloads will deliver have been communicated by the minister. With the first thing the mine laying and the cache delivery, Ghost Shark will autonomously, accurately and securely deploy naval mines, enabling rapid area denial to key geographies and critical infrastructure at significantly lower cost and risk than using a surface ship or a crewed asset.

The unmanned aerial systems that you see to my left, Ghost Shark can deploy swarms of tube-launched Anduril Altius loitering munitions, extending the battle space from undersea into the air. This gives navy’s demanders a forward-deployed capability while keeping crewed assets safe.

And finally, torpedoes and effectors. Ghost Shark’s large payload bays also support the deployment of heavyweight and lightweight torpedoes, including modern, unmanned, cost-effective, undersea effectors, and the vehicle will be capable of engaging threats independently. This only happens with an engineering approach that supports it. Anduril’s open system architecture means new payloads can be integrated quickly as they develop and mature over time, ensuring that Ghost Shark’s potency is always at the cutting edge and at least one step ahead of the emerging threats.

So as we keep pushing the capability forward, the next phase of the program opens an exciting pathway subject to government export approval. We will be able to share Ghost Shark with our allies and partners around the world. With efficient scale production underway here in Australia and new missions and payloads in the pipeline, we can show the world what an Australian-designed, engineered and produced vehicle can do. Defence exports create opportunities to expand Australian production, improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness, strengthens our distributed allied defence industrial ecosystem and grow a broad-based, highly skilled workforce. And exports also support and empower our allies and partners, which is what friends do.

Most importantly, though, Ghost Shark gives our adversaries pause for thought before seeking to threaten our sovereignty or our democracy, which is a critical deterrent to conflict by turning us into a prickly porcupine, as the Deputy Prime Minister has previously described the effects that the Ghost Shark fleet will have.

Now, this deterrent only gets stronger and stronger as the fleet of Ghost Sharks deployed into the navy’s fleet grows and grows. So Minister for Defence Industry, Chief of Navy and Chief Defence Scientist, thank you for supporting this program and the Australian team that has designed it and is now producing it.

To the Anduril Australia team of over 350 of the most dedicated and talented people I have had the privilege of working with both here at the factory and in our offices around the country, thank you on behalf of Dr Shane Arnott, Andrew Glynn and Shane Rogers for your hard work that has made today possible. But know this: we are not slowing down. We will continue to innovate, we will continue to invest our own capital to bring new solutions and capabilities to the government and the ADF across all warfighting domains, and in doing so grow our partnership with Defence. We will do this because the mission demands it. And today proves with our collective sense of purpose, performance and a dedication to accelerated delivery, we can and will deliver the capability that the nation needs to defend itself.

DEFENCE CHIEF SCIENTIST TANYA MONRO: Minister, Chief of Navy, David, Ghost Shark is an extraordinary platform. But today is not about the platform itself; it’s about what that platform can do. Capability comes from payloads, and that’s what turns a vehicle into a mission system, and they’re what allows us to adapt as operational needs evolve.

Defence Science Technology Group is proud to have played a major role in that effort. For example, our scientists and engineers developed the logistics cache payload from concept through to integration, enabling equipment and supplies to be stored beneath the surface and recovered when required. We worked closely with our navy and with our industry partners to deliver this capability at pace. Using a modular approach, we can evolve that capability as the needs change without having to redesign the entire system. This means that new technologies and new systems can keep pace with the changing environment.

Today we’re recognising an achievement that reflects the strength of partnership across defence industry and it really gives us potential to translate Australian world-class science and technology into operational capability. Because in a rapidly changing world, advantage comes not from what a platform can do today but from how quickly you can change it so it can do what it needs to do tomorrow. Thank you.

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, Tanya. And just in conclusion, I want to thank David for his leadership in this incredibly exciting project and his 350 Anduril staff. They have driven the fastest peacetime acquisition of a major platform for the Australian Defence Force ever – as David said, three years from concept to delivery. In fact, delivery of the first prototypes a year ahead of schedule, delivery of the first Ghost Shark to the Royal Australian Navy in three months after the contract was signed. So I want to thank the 350 staff led by the visionary David Goodrich, and the 42 Australian companies that work with them every day building the most advanced extra large underwater maritime vehicle in the world.

As I said last year when we opened this factory, adding 150 jobs, that took [indistinct]. They now have to consider any shipping container near a wharf anywhere in Australia to have a Ghost Shark potentially in it or any large maritime vessel potentially carrying it. But today they have to consider not only will there be Ghost Sharks in those shipping containers, those Ghost Sharks now have teeth – teeth with the ability to strike through mines, teeth with the ability to undertake strike to hit targets thousands of nautical miles away from Australia.

So this is an important day for the capability of the Australian Defence Force. Today is a day that makes Australia safer. Today is a day that we see AUKUS Pillar 2 becoming more real for everyone involved in it. Today is a day that makes the men and women of the Australian Defence Force safer in combination with Australian defence industry.

Happy to take questions first on today’s announcement, then we’ll do questions on broader defence and then news of the day.

JOURNALIST: When you talk about an ALTIUS swarm, how many are in a swarm? And is that going to be produced at scale in Australia, and can you give an indication of how many [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: We won’t be disclosing what a swarm counts as a number for operational reasons. And I'll let David actually answer, but this is a very capable drone that complements the drones that we’re making in this country already.

DAVID GOODRICH: The ALTIUS loitering munition is a highly capable effector. We are working with a range of different governments around the world, and subject to government approval, we’ll be looking to bring it to Australia at a scale [indistinct].

JOURNALIST: Minister, this announcement today with the sea mines payload, it coincides with the retirement of the Huon-class minehunters of the Navy. What’s the strategy you’ll be looking at to potentially remove some of the mines later on without those [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: I’ll invite Chief of Navy to comment as well as it is his domain. And this has been something that’s talked about quite a lot. We still retain a mine-hunting capability within the Royal Australian Navy through a combination of crewed and uncrewed platforms. That’s a really important capability. Just because one class of vessel is being retired does not mean that we’ve lost that capability. But I invite the chief.

VICE ADMIRAL BUCKLEY: Yeah, thanks, minister. A little bit like we’re doing with the Ghost Shark and autonomous systems, we’re in the middle of a transition now between crewed and uncrewed mine countermeasures. The whole concept now that we’re taking forward is that we actually don’t put the ship into the minefield, we use a various array of craft to deploy autonomous systems to be able to defeat the mines, whether they’re mines that we’ve proactively put in place or mines that perhaps others might use. So essentially it’s a transition to autonomous systems. That’s consistent with what’s going on elsewhere in the world at the moment, particularly with our AUKUS partners and NATO allies.

JOURNALIST: Can I get an update on how many have been deployed into the navy at this point?

MINISTER CONROY: So, we won’t talk about specific numbers. The $1.7 billion contract works for dozens and dozens of these. And the first was provided to the navy for testing and acceptance early this year. So we’ll continue to produce them. Anduril will continue to produce them and hand them over to the navy over the next few years.

JOURNALIST: What level of appetite do you expect the US and the UK will have in acquiring this platform?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, it’s more about the payloads. We’re working very closely with David and Anduril Australia to export the Ghost Shark around the world. And it’s one of the key campaigns for the Australian Defence Strategic Sales Office. But AUKUS Pillar 2, the decision around marquee projects was to invest in common payloads and sensors. We all have a range of our own platforms to deliver them. But that’s not to say that we haven’t given up hope of exporting Ghost Shark to those two markets. And, in fact, the US and the UK have seen the Ghost Shark on display at the Maritime Big Play. But at the moment AUKUS Pillar 2 is focused on common payloads and sensors. But we’re pursuing multiple markets for Ghost Shark itself. I’m not sure, David, was there anything you wanted to add to that? You don’t have to.

DAVID GOODRICH: Not much, Minister, but to say that with the support of the Australian Government and the Defence Export Office we are fielding an enormous amount of demand for Ghost Shark from our allies and partners around the world. The countries that you mentioned are part of that.

MINISTER CONROY: We’ll just go to the phone on today’s announcement.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] Minister, given that the fast development of this capability both in autonomous uncrewed vessels, what do you say to taxpayers who are now questioning the value of a $368 billion AUKUS deal which this early bit of kit is going to be 10 years-plus old?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, first, I don’t agree, Andrew, with the last part of that question. The first Virginia-class submarine that we will be getting in the early 2030s will be an incredibly advanced piece of kit that will be the apex predator of the oceans. It will be the most advanced nuclear-powered, conventionally armed attack submarine in the world full stop bar none. And that’s why we’re getting it. It will be the most advanced nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarine in the world until we get SSN-AUKUS in the early 2040s.

These capabilities complement crewed platforms. So they will do a range of duties that are more appropriate for uncrewed platforms, and they’ll do things that crewed platforms will struggle to do. But equally, large nuclear-powered submarines will do things that these platforms can’t do. And that’s why you need both. And that’s why the most advanced militaries in the world are investing in both crewed platforms and uncrewed platforms.

No one is stopping the production of nuclear-powered submarines. If you look at what the United States is doing, the People’s Republic of China, the UK, France, there are more countries interested in producing them and there’s not one I’m aware of that’s decided to stop making them. I’m happy to be corrected.

So my message is these capabilities complement each other and the Royal Australian Navy will be even more capable, it will provide even more deterrence through a combination of uncrewed platforms like Ghost Shark and Bluebottle working in conjunction with Collins-class submarines and then the Virginias and then SSN-AUKUS.

Any other questions about today’s announcement? We’ll make these the last two.

JOURNALIST: In terms of the logistics cache, what’s the goal behind the cache, and how will they work with littoral forces?

MINISTER CONROY: You’re getting into some more detailed operational areas. I’m not sure whether we want to comment on it. Let’s just say people can use their imagination about the sort of forces that would use these on deployment. In my opening remarks I highlighted one capable use for the logistics cache, but we’re not going to get into too much details of that.

JOURNALIST: Just on a different autonomous platform – the Ghost Bat – are you disappointed that Germany has lost interest in acquiring that platform?

MINISTER CONROY: I wouldn’t characterise the German decision like that. My understanding is that the German government has adopted a slightly different procurement strategy where they intend to run a competition. I might ask, actually, David - actually, let me answer that later [indistinct]. I’ll be talking about another company’s product, so I don’t want to embarrass your fine self.

So are there any other questions about today’s announcement? No. Okay. David, do you want to exit stage left or right? Matt, I might ask you to stay because I think the questions that you want to make a contribution to.

So on Ghost Bat itself, the German Government has decided to run an open competition to acquire a collaborative combat aircraft. We welcome that move. We welcome that because competition is good. And we’re confident that Ghost Bat is the most advanced collaborative combat aircraft in the world. It’s the first combat aircraft designed and built in Australia in 50 years. And it is being well and truly – it’s got a long production – sorry, it’s got a long development cycle. It was the first combat collaborative aircraft to test-fire a [inaudible] missile when it fired US [indistinct] at Woomera late last year. So we’re very confident in its capabilities, and we’re backing Boeing Defence Australia in their efforts to enter the US – sorry, the German competition.

Boeing Defence Australia announced that they would be participating in that competition and they announced at an air show earlier this year that they’ll be partnering with Rheinmetall as part of that offering. So we’re confident in it. We’re backing it 100 per cent. It’s another marquee campaign for the Australian Defence Strategic Sales Office. Germany is not the only market that we’re offering it to. There’s a range of other countries interested in it, as lots of countries are interested in Ghost Shark as well.

Any other questions about matters of defence? I think, Andrew, you alluded to one earlier.

JOURNALIST: Yes, I’ve got a question from my colleagues, [indistinct].

JOURNALIST: Just on the situation at HMAS Leeuwin, I wanted to ask a couple of questions. Has the recordings or vision been shared online or to any others? Has the person of interest been suspended, and were any other devices found during the full audit of navy ships?

MINISTER CONROY: I’ll invite Vice Admiral Buckley to provide answers to your detailed questions. But I want to again repeat our very strong reprehension, our very strong view that the act of this was a reprehensible act that undermined the dignity and privacy of Royal Australian Navy personnel. It is completely unacceptable and it has no place in the modern ADF. It has no place in any military and it has no place in any Australian workplace. And we are committed to changing the culture of the ADF. Significant improvements to the behaviour and culture have been made over the last few years, but it’s clear that we’ve got more to do. And I invite Admiral Buckley to answer your detailed questions.

VICE ADMIRAL BUCKLEY: In regards to the investigation, firstly, as I said last week, this is a completely unacceptable act. We are getting after this with the highest priority. The Military Police are absolutely prioritising this investigation.

I commented last week that we had completed a complete audit of the fleet, and no other devices were located in the conduct of that particular audit, which was only completed late last week.

In regards of the person of interest that’s assisting Military Police with their inquiries, that person has been stood down from duty, as you would expect. And Military Police are prioritising the investigation.

I can’t go into any specific details about the investigation, but I’ve seen no evidence of any sharing of that information. But, as I said, the investigation is ongoing, and it’s important that we don’t compromise that such that we can take the appropriate actions needed. No other devices were located.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, just a follow-on, has the person of interest been stood down with pay or without pay?

VICE ADMIRAL BUCKLEY: At the moment the person has been stood down with pay. That is the normal convention prior to any further proceedings or charges being laid.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

MINISTER CONROY: And I should supplement my answer to your earlier question, Andrew, about the interaction between uncrewed platforms and nuclear-powered submarines. I talked about some things uncrewed platforms that crewed platforms can’t and things that nuclear-powered submarines that these platforms can’t. The other part of this whole process is that by working together, they magnify the capability of both platforms.

So our intention is that these uncrewed platforms would work in partnership with our submarines and that would add further to the Collins-class and then the Virginias and SSN-AUKUS.

Do you have any other questions about defence?

JOURNALIST: Just one on AUKUS Pillar 2, do you still expect other countries like potentially Japan, Korea, might sign up to Pillar 2?

MINISTER CONROY: I’ll refer you to the statements we made when – last year when – possibly even two years ago when Japan expressed a preference or an interest in joining AUKUS Pillar 2. The position of our government is we’re open to that. We’re open to it if those countries can demonstrate that they’re bringing something to the partnership. But our main focus is making and continuing to make AUKUS Pillar 2 a reality. Today’s announcement is another milestone in making AUKUS Pillar 2 a reality through the marquee projects of common payloads and sensors.

Any other questions?

JOURNALIST: Just on politics of the day.

SPEAKER: Last question.

MINISTER CONROY: We’ll make this the last question.

JOURNALIST: You’re probably aware of this video from One Nation mocking Senator Jacqui Lambie’s vaginal prolapse. Should that video be taken down?

MINISTER CONROY: Absolutely. It should never have been produced in the first place. Every Australian has a right to a dignified existence. Every Australian should not be mocked for any medical episodes they’re going through, any health issues they go through. That’s the base premise of respect to every single Australian. I think that should be the base premise of respect to any human – is not to mock people for any health conditions they have.

When you add on top of that the fact that Senator Lambie, who is a fine public servant committed to serving the public, has been open and honest about her health challenges in a way to raise awareness and to destigmatise these conditions, that’s incredibly brave of her. So for her to be mocked by One Nation just shows, quite frankly, what they stand for – that the people behind this should really have a hard look at themselves and should reflect on their values. If they think it’s okay to mock someone’s health conditions, that says a lot more about them than it says about Senator Lambie.

Thank you very much, everyone.

ENDS