Defence technology company Anduril Industries has unveiled a new series of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that can be fitted with munitions to enable them to be used as expendable weapons for undersea warfare.
Anduril's Copperhead-M AUV is designed as a munition variant that arms autonomous vehicles with affordable torpedo-like capabilities that can also be mass-produced. This allows commanders to use autonomous vehicles for high-risk missions, engaging maritime threats more precisely and effectively while protecting valuable assets and personnel.
The Copperhead series includes two models offering different sizes, payload capacities, and ranges for commercial and defense missions.
For example, one of Anduril's extra-large AUVs (XLAUVs) can carry multiple Copperhead-Ms, delivering underwater firepower on demand to disable or destroy maritime threats. This makes it possible for a fleet of XLAUVs to control ocean areas with significant autonomous seapower.
Designed for rapid-response commercial missions like search and rescue, critical infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring, both Copperhead variants can reach speeds greater than 30 knots and can be equipped with payloads such as active and passive sensors, magnetometers, side-scan sonar, and chemical detection sensors.