The Copperhead family of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) can be equipped with ISR, communications and acoustic payloads for off-board sensing or warheads for kinetic uses.
Anduril released on Apr. 25, 2026, the first public footage of its Copperhead-500M underwater weapon, part of the Copperhead series of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), in a short 16-second clip. The video shows the weapon traveling just under the surface of the water, during a test that supposedly took place recently.
“First public footage of Copperhead-500M swimming,” the company said in the post. “During the test, the 21-inch heavyweight AUV successfully broke internal speed records while demonstrating extreme agility maneuvers in high seas.”
The company did not reveal when and where the test took place. The Copperhead 100 and 500 are the two main products in this family of naval weapons, with variants for both kinetic and non-kinetic missions.
If you see Copperhead coming,
it’s already too late.Shown: First public footage of Copperhead-500M swimming. During the test, the 21-inch heavyweight AUV successfully broke internal speed records while demonstrating extreme agility maneuvers in high seas. pic.twitter.com/oCgvkQ5FIP
— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) April 24, 2026
As the product page on the company’s website shows, the ‘M’ designation and a yellow band around the faceted body indicate a torpedo type-like vehicle. The vehicles without these markers are instead sub-surface sensing AUVs.
The video does not show the Copperhead-500M hitting a target, although a blue band indicates that it was an inert AUV without explosives. Also, the video does not show any control room or operator’s console operating the system.
Anduril’s underwater systems
The company had unveiled the Copperhead family a year ago in early April, stressing on their mass-producibility and ability to be launched by other surface, aerial and the company’s own larger undersea platforms, like the Ghost Shark Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV), the Dive-LD and Dive-XL. Anduril also pointed out that the vehicles have civilian and humanitarian applications.
The maritime vehicles add to Anduril’s diverse portfolio of modular and scalable systems like the YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), the Barracuda family of autonomous air vehicles, the Roadrunner reusable anti-air interceptor drone, and the Ghost Shark Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV).
Australia announced in September 2025 a $1.12 billion deal for a fleet of Ghost Shark XLUUVs which, according to Defense Minister Richard Marles, would be manufactured within the country. The company also announced on Mar. 12, 2026, that it had been selected by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to participate in the Combat Autonomous Marine Platform Project (CAMP).
“Anduril will complete a long-duration, operationally representative demonstration of Dive-XL within 4 months of contract award,” said the company. The Dive-XL had successfully performed in Australia as well, prior to Sydney’s selection of the Ghost Shark.
Anduril has secured a A$1.7B (US$1.2B) contract to deliver a fleet of Ghost Shark XL-AUVs to the @Australian_Navy.
This is our first international Program of Record. Production is already underway. pic.twitter.com/VZDnU9TyxR
— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) September 10, 2025
Copperhead family of sensing and strike AUVs
The Copperhead-100M is a lightweight torpedo with 12.75-inch diameter and nine feet long, while the larger Copperhead-500M is a 21-inch thick and a little over 13 feet-long heavyweight torpedo. The Copperhead-100 and 500 are classic ISR AUVs that can carry swappable payloads for extended communications, a magnetometer and side-scan sonar for anti-submarine warfare and chemical detection devices.
All Copperheads have a maximum speed of 30 knots. Roughly, the Copperhead-500 can be considered to be broadly equivalent to a Mk 48 heavyweight torpedo, while the Copperhead-100 is roughly in the same class as a Mk 54 lightweight torpedo.
Anduril said in an Apr. 7, 2025, release: “With the Dive-LD and Dive-XL, Copperhead enables a comprehensive, intelligent maritime capability that allows operators to quickly respond to threats in the undersea battlespace, at a fraction of the cost of legacy options.”
More firepower.
The U.S. & its allies need scalable, autonomous subsea weapons that can be rapidly deployed to meet the demands of modern naval operations.
Meet Copperhead. Anduril’s high-speed, software-defined family of AUVs. pic.twitter.com/uxRMHOlXIH
— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) April 7, 2025
The company called the Copperhead-M a “munition variant” for autonomous vehicles with “affordable and mass-producible torpedo-like capabilities.” “Copperhead-M enhances naval operations by allowing commanders to use autonomous vehicles for high-risk missions, engaging maritime threats more precisely and effectively while protecting more valuable assets and personnel,” said the company.
For example, Anduril’s Dive-XL can carry dozens of Copperhead-100Ms or multiple Copperhead-500Ms, “delivering underwater firepower on demand to disable or destroy maritime threats.” The two can also be repurposed for “rapid-response commercial missions” like “search and rescue, critical infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring.”
Future
The Copperhead systems are far from being tested by the U.S. Navy’s existing surface combatants or its primary maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare platform, the P-8A Poseidon. All these platforms are however expected to work with Anduril’s Seabed Sentry Undersea Sensor Network, which the company had unveiled just days before revealing the Copperheads.
The U.S. Navy’s Orca XLUUV developed by Boeing, the first of which was delivered to the service in December 2023, had been delayed by three years and was $242 million over budget, a 2022 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is also testing Northrop Grumman’s extra-large glider Manta Ray UUV, “that will operate long-duration, long-range and payload-capable undersea missions without need for on-site human logistics.”
