US buys Australian underwater ‘stealth’ drones set to reshape maritime warfare

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]It's 12 months ago Sky News brought you the exclusive story of a secret underwater drone that Aussie creators believe could change the face of maritime warfare. Impressed, we can now exclusively reveal C2 Robotics has just sold three of their underwater vehicles to the United States in what's shaping up to be a significant win for Australia's homegrown and grown defense industry. Our national affairs correspondent Jonathan Lea spoke to chief executive Troy Duggan about what it means.

[00:00:30]Well, Troy Duggan, congratulations. Can you tell me what this means? Uh it's an incredible day. It represents so much for not just the company, but for Australia. Uh for us, it's been a long journey. Uh but to get our, you know, to announce our first overseas sale is is incredible.

[00:00:48]Uh and it's not just any country, either. It's the United States. Uh certainly the big one and certainly one that any defense industry uh company uh wants to uh do business with as uh they have a big ecosystem in themselves. Are you able to say which branch within the United States defense force or area of the United States defense force this is going to?

[00:01:12]Uh no, we can't. There are lots of different uh bureaucracies and and customers and organizations within a country and the US being quite a large one uh has many uh and it's one of those.

[00:01:24]What is the advantage of Speartooth that somebody at home that sees an a large uncrewed undersea vehicle? What does it do? What does it offer?

[00:01:34]Well, it offers a whole bunch of things.

[00:01:37]Uh it's certainly scalable, affordable, and uh it's very stealthy. Uh it uh travels very strategically relevant long ranges and it carries a whole bunch of payloads. Uh it has been announced uh a couple of weeks during the national defense strategy uh release that it can do uh strike, reconnaissance, intelligence, uh and yeah, so it's an incredible capability.

[00:02:02]Uh and it's as we're seeing thematically, uh it's although it's miniature in size, uh it's doing big missions that otherwise submarines would normally do. And certainly uh with being uncrewed, they're perfect to do those uh un- dirty, dangerous missions, high-risk uh that you probably wouldn't want to send uh your people to do.

[00:02:26]What can you tell me about other customers cuz there's at least one other nation on the hook here, isn't there?

[00:02:32]Yeah, there is. Uh hopefully in the next uh week, uh we'll get some imagery and uh we'll be excitedly releasing another customer, although be it's on the other side of the world as well. Uh so that's certainly exciting uh for the company that uh through the through about a year or so and beyond, uh various interested allies and partners have been following the developments of Speartooth. Uh and it's it's certainly exciting to see that they're realizing that it although it's small, uh that it packs a punch.

[00:03:00]What are you looking at for one of these?

[00:03:03]Uh I can't release uh the cost, but it's uh clearly orders of magnitude uh cheaper than a real submarine.

[00:03:12]Uh and certainly uh orders of magnitude cheaper than an XL UUV, as well. And it sort of uh crosses the the spectrum between what is a also a weapon and a platform. So, an ordnance and a platform. Uh so therefore, it's also expendable.

[00:03:29]Are you of the mind that we won't need submarines going forward, that we will simply use large uncrewed undersea vehicles? Or are you of the mind that submarines, nuclear-powered submarines will be motherships?

[00:03:42]I I think there'll always be a mix. I think the mix that everyone anticipated between crewed and uncrewed vessels uh is probably progressing a lot quicker than everyone uh imagined. Uh I do see that uh a Virginia class submarine will still be the master of the oceans uh in the open ocean where they can utilize their speed uh and their sensors. Uh but in the littorals, uh that's where the XL UUVs and the large UUVs uh will start to uh show their worth. Is the United States now putting this through its its own tests? What happens now? Uh what they do with it, uh what that organization does it uh does with it, I'm not quite sure.

[00:04:22]Uh it is up for that up to them. Uh but what is exciting uh when we do have more of these Speartooth with our allies is that you can share payloads and payload bays.

[00:04:33]Uh so that's where the efficiency really starts to hit home is when we're starting to share, integrate, interoperate, uh and that's uh that's the true uh uh amazing part of the system. Do Do you see these as like a truck which drops off kit?

[00:04:50]Absolutely. It is just an underwater truck. It's a small truck. Uh there's certainly bigger trucks out there.

[00:04:57]Uh and uh I according to the our company mantra, it is small, smart, and many.

[00:05:03]And we believe that you don't need to make very, very large, expensive few things.

[00:05:09]That you can make up that quality uh with quantity. Uh and that's exactly what Speartooth does. And uh with allies and partners, that's when you can get the true efficiencies of the system and the synergies when you can share payloads, interoperate, and being very small, you can fly them, you can ship them.

[00:05:29]Uh you can get them across to the other side of the world very quickly or elements or payloads of it and then uh uh integrate and deliver uh a capability. Troy, what could this do in a harbor?

[00:05:40]How would you use or how could this be used to attack or defend? Uh we don't really get into uh missions and payloads uh specifically. So, it's up to people's imagination on that.

[00:05:51]Troy Duggan, thank you very much for your time.

[00:05:54]Thank you very much, Jonathan.

[00:05:56]Great talking to you.