America Can’t Build Ships Anymore. Anduril Has a Plan
In a Nutshell
Anduril, founded by Palmer Luckey, is deploying autonomous undersea vehicles like the DiveLD—equipped with sidescan sonar, subbottom profilers, multibeam echo sounders, magnetometers, and cameras—to revive U.S. shipbuilding amid China's dominance (200 boats to America's 1). DiveLD, tested off Massachusetts, uses ruggedized flooded designs and Lattice software for real-time seafloor mapping and object detection, scaling production to 200 units/year at a new Rhode Island facility. Larger DiveXL supports extended missions, including classified ops and Royal Australian Navy's Ghost Shark, to rebuild uncrewed maritime capabilities without human crews.
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The DiveLD autonomous undersea vehicle from Anduril is a robot submarine designed to swim underwater. Anduril is a defense technology company started by Palmer Luckey, the Oculus headset inventor.
Do you think that NATO should be armed with squirt guns? How about sternly worded letters? Would you like that?
Anduril aims to make a full arsenal of autonomous weapons for the US and its allies, including drones, planes, weapon systems, and software like Lattice to tie them together. Anduril has submarines: the smaller DiveLD for looking at and listening to ocean activity, and the larger DiveXL for missions that can't be discussed in detail.
Quincy, Massachusetts (pronounced Quinsey), just outside Boston, was an industrial hub and lively shipbuilding center last century, but those days are gone, as seen with an ancient sub. The US can barely make ships now. Anduril wants the US to build super modern ships again, without humans inside.
James runs Anduril's submarine division and previously worked at Dive Technologies, the precursor to Anduril's maritime operations. Since early 2022 acquisition by Anduril, they've ruggedized the original DiveLD concept. On the Encourager, helmed by Captain Jarrett, they're testing DiveLD in a survey zone southeast of Mass Bay, after a 1 hour 20 minute steam from Quincy basin.
The DiveLD panels are reinforced composite. Inside, small tubes protect dry electronics and computers; everything else is flooded with water, unlike traditional submarines that keep everything dry. Panels are made in Quincy now, soon in Rhode Island.
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