Copperhead is the name of a family of reusable
unmanned underwater vehicle
Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), also known as underwater drones, are submersible vehicles that can operate underwater without a human occupant. These vehicles may be divided into two categories: remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs) an ...
s (drones) developed by
Anduril. The family consists of two size classes of autonomous undersea vehicle, with both utility and
"kamikaze"-style munitions (designated M) subvariants of each. The Copperhead-100M is roughly comparable in size and capability to the
Mark 54 lightweight torpedo, and the Copperhead-500M is roughly comparable in size and capability to the
Mark 48 heavy torpedo; however both Copperhead variants are significantly lighter and cheaper to manufacture.
It is intended to supplement, rather than replace, traditional crewed
submersible
A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger ship, watercraft or dock, platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent ope ...
s and torpedoes.
Design
Anduril refers to Copperhead as "High-Speed Autonomous Underwater Effects".
Copperhead features a rectangular hull form, rather than the cylindrical hull shapes of the Mk54 and Mk48 torpedoes.
According to Anduril, this was a deliberate decision to simplify development and reduce construction costs, as stamping out cylindrical shapes is more difficult than rectangular or square shapes.
Anduril claims that this production system is intended to produce "very high hundreds to 1000's of these systems a year", in comparison to legacy torpedoes which are produced in much smaller volumes annually.
The system was specifically designed for an expected conflict with the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, which Anduril expects will take place on a "
very wide waterfront" and will require low-cost, high-production autonomous systems and weapons effectors that can themselves be deployed from unmanned platforms where crewed vessels cannot safely operate.
Copperhead is designed to be recoverable, refurbished, and reusable, in contrast to traditional legacy torpedoes which are single use disposable platforms, which contributes to the price point being a fraction of the cost of existing traditional torpedoes.
Copperhead is designed to be loaded into and deployed by larger UUVs,
such as Anduril's
Ghost Shark (also known as Dive-XL), which is capable of carrying dozens of Copperhead-100's in a single unit, or multiple Copperhead-500s.
Launch systems aside from Ghost Shark/Dive-XL
and
Dive-LD are currently unknown, though Anduril has indicated that it will be deployable from other autonomous host vehicles and is considering air-launched capability.
The system can be directly controlled, or programmed to
autonomously make decisions on which targets to address based on the operator's parameters. Its
seeking
SEEK Limited is an Australian employment website for job listings, headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. Seek also operates in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
History
Seek was founded ...
technology is capable of being upgraded through software updates alone as new threats emerge or existing threats change
signatures
A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...
.
Capabilities
Copperhead can be configured to carry a
munitions
Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of ...
payload, active or passive sensors,
magnetometer
A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...
s,
side-scanning sonar, or chemical detection equipment.
All members of the Copperhead family will feature Anduril's Lattice
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
-enabled autonomy software package, as well as other subsea communications, data-sharing, and data-processing capabilities to allow the systems to communicate with each other (via acoustic and optical technologies) in the extremely low bandwidth subsea environment.
Through the
Lattice system
In crystallography, a crystal system is a set of point groups (a group of geometric symmetries with at least one fixed point). A lattice system is a set of Bravais lattices (an infinite array of discrete points). Space groups (symmetry groups ...
, Copperhead was designed to communicate with Anduril's Seabed Sentry series of cableless deep-sea nodes which can sense, process and communicate information in remote underwater environments.
The system utilizes Anduril's communications systems that operate on low power and through very thin bandwidths.
Copperhead is intended to supplement, rather than replace, traditional crewed submersibles (for the non-munitions variants) and torpedoes (for the munitions variants).
Copperhead-Ms are believed to possess some
loitering capability, depending on configured mission endurance.
Anduril intends to offer the non-munitions versions of Copperhead for sale in non-military contexts, such as
search and rescue
Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...
, inspection of underwater infrastructure, and
environmental monitoring
Environmental monitoring is the processes and activities that are done to characterize and describe the state of the environment. It is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, and in many circumstances in which human activit ...
.
Specifications
See also
*
Ghost Shark, a similar but larger UUV from Anduril also known as Dive-XL.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.anduril.com/hardware/copperhead/
Unmanned underwater vehicles
Autonomous underwater vehicles
Torpedoes of the United States
Loitering munitions