American defense technology company Anduril Industries has introduced Copperhead, a new family of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that can be deployed from other unmanned systems.
“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,” the company said in a news release published on Monday.
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 newly launched Copperhead series includes two models—Copperhead-100 and Copperhead-500—along with armed variants known as Copperhead-M.
The Copperhead-100 measures just under nine feet (about 2.7 meters) in length and has a diameter of 12.75 inches, while the larger Copperhead-500 is slightly over 13.5 feet (just over 4 meters) long and 21 inches in diameter.
According to the company, the Copperhead-100 and Copperhead-500 are designed for rapid-response commercial missions such as search and rescue, critical infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring.
Both models can exceed speeds of 30 knots and can be equipped with various payloads, including active and passive sensors, magnetometers, side-scan sonar, and chemical detection systems.
Meanwhile, the Copperhead-M variant arms AUVs with affordable, mass-producible torpedo-like capabilities. Anduril asserts that the Copperhead-M is the first subsea effector—or torpedo—designed specifically for autonomous system delivery.
The company said Anduril’s Dive-XL, an extra-large AUV, is capable of carrying dozens of Copperhead-100Ms or several Copperhead-500Ms.
“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,” Anduril said.
