Anduril launches Copperhead, a family of high—speed software-controlled autonomous underwater vehicles

 Copperhead 

Anduril Industries has announced the launch of Copperhead, a new family of high-speed software-controlled autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed for autonomous system delivery. Copperhead is designed to meet the military and commercial needs of large fleets of unmanned naval vessels.

The Copperhead includes two models, the Copperhead-100 and the Copperhead-500, each offering a different size, payload, and range for commercial and defense missions. Both models can reach speeds of over 30 knots and are equipped with various payloads such as active and passive sensors, magnetometers, side scanning sonar and chemical detection devices.

The Copperhead-M is a military variant equipped with torpedo-like capabilities. It can be launched from larger platforms such as Dive-LD and Dive-XL, and is designed for mass production. The Dive-XL can carry dozens of small Copperhead-M or several larger Copperhead-500M, allowing the Dive-XL fleet to control ocean areas with unprecedented levels of autonomous maritime power.

Copperhead provides comprehensive, intelligent maritime capabilities that enable operators to quickly respond to threats in the underwater combat space, at a fraction of the cost of legacy options. The system is designed to quickly respond to commercial missions such as search and rescue operations, critical infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring.

The Copperhead-M is designed with mass production in mind, making it more affordable and effective for attacking unmanned underwater and surface enemy vessels. The system uses Anduril's Lattice software platform, which allows threat detection technologies to be updated with software updates.