Anduril, Ultra Maritime to collaborate on ‘groundbreaking’ autonomous ocean sensing tech

Anduril Industries and Ultra Maritime have entered into a partnership focused on advancing unmanned subsea sensing technology. The collaboration aims to develop a new capability to improve submarine detection.

The partnership integrates Ultra Maritime’s Sea Spear deployable acoustic arrays and AI-driven acoustic processing with Anduril’s autonomous undersea systems, including Dive XL and Seabed Sentry, as well as Anduril’s Lattice communications framework. The combined technologies are intended to create a distributed, low-cost solution for undersea surveillance.

The companies stated that the increasing sophistication and number of adversary submarines necessitate more affordable methods for detection. Autonomous systems offer a potential pathway for low-risk anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, but previous limitations in areas such as range, endurance, sensitivity, communication, and scale have hindered progress.

The joint concept involves Anduril’s Dive XL autonomous underwater vehicle deploying Anduril’s Seabed Sentry, a modular undersea payload system. Seabed Sentry will then host Ultra Maritime’s Sea Spear lightweight sensing array.

Once deployed, Sea Spear will utilize AI techniques for sonar processing at the operational edge. The system will then use acoustic communication and Anduril’s Lattice framework to provide users with real-time, autonomous submarine detection. The ability to deploy multiple systems in a distributed manner is intended to enable broad ocean area surveillance.

The collaborative effort is reportedly underway, with end-to-end in-water testing scheduled for 2025.

To remind, Ultra Maritime recently unveiled Sea Spear, a ‘first-of-its-kind’ lightweight deployable sonar system to enhance submarine detection capabilities. The system is a 21-inch diameter unit that can be deployed from crewed or uncrewed surface and underwater platforms. The firm revealed that the technology is already well into its development phase and in-water testing, and full operational demonstration will occur in 2025.