DSEI 2025: U.S. Anduril new Dive XL unmanned submarine for weeks long seabed security missions.

During DSEI, in September 2025, Anduril’s new Dive-XL was presented: the display unit and the technical notes nearby show an extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle built for long missions and big payloads rather than a single exquisite sensor. It is not a weapon as such, but a carrier for mission kits. The company frames it as a workhorse for intelligence gathering, seabed surveillance, mine countermeasures or other special operations that need persistence and space. The point is endurance and volume, that context matters because navies are now buying time and presence underwater just as much as they are buying firepower.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

Anduril Dive XL is an extra large autonomous underwater vehicle designed for long endurance missions, carrying modular payloads for seabed security, intelligence gathering, and mine countermeasures (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

The Dive-XL presented at DSEI is a true XL-AUV in size and in concept. The vehicle’s beam is about 2 meters, roughly six feet across, with a modular hull that stretches to around 11 meters with one payload section. That scale is immediately obvious when you stand next to the nose. Anduril quotes a range greater than 2,000 nautical miles, a number that pushes this platform into multi-week autonomy without constant tender support. Mass grows with the configuration. A single-module build is around 22,500 kilograms, in the mid-20-ton class including a 4-ton payload. A three-module stack climbs toward 38 tons when fully laden, allowing roughly 12 tons of mission gear. Payload volume tracks the same logic, moving from roughly 3 cubic meters in a single section to roughly 7 cubic meters. All of this sits on an all-electric architecture, which helps with noise signatures and maintenance burden.

The front end is designed for sensors and perception rather than weapons. Anduril lists subsea situational awareness, beyond-line-of-sight communications, high-reliability navigation, configurable buoyancy and flexible payload bays as the core components. In plain terms, it is meant to know where it is, talk when it has to, carry what you bolt inside, and stay neutrally buoyant in different salinities and temperatures. The company also leans on a software-first, modular approach already proven on the smaller Dive-LD, now scaled up so the bigger craft can be built and upgraded without bespoke shipyard work. That is visible in the way the payload sections are treated as drop-in modules. The more you add, the longer the hull and the bigger the job you can assign to it.

The hull form is broad and rounded forward with a clean shroud over the sensor window. It looks like a nose optimized to reduce flow noise and protect the primary sensor suite. Along the body, the fasteners and seam lines suggest straightforward access for technicians. This is not trivial in the XL class, where opening the vehicle often means special tools or cranes. The powertrain being fully electric simplifies logistics and storage and helps with safety around pier-side operations. With the vehicle’s quoted dimensions and mass, launch options could range from a large crane on a support ship to roll-in from a ramp or pier, depending on local conditions. The manufacturer is clearly aiming for easy deployment and recovery rather than a one-off demonstrator.

The Dive-XL sits in a useful sweet spot. With more than 2,000 nautical miles in the tank, commanders can plan persistent surveillance of choke points and approaches without cycling a crewed submarine or a surface ship through the same patch of water. A hull this size can host wide-aperture sonars, synthetic aperture systems for mine hunting, towed or conformal arrays, electronic support receivers, or even packages for seabed work such as cable inspection and object recovery. Beyond-line-of-sight communications mean the vehicle can surface, burst data through satellite links, then dip back down to continue the patrol. For mine countermeasures, the payload volume leaves room for multi-influence sensors and expendable neutralizers, with the AUV either cueing a separate effector or delivering it. In littoral ISR, the boat can map traffic patterns and acoustic baselines over weeks, not hours. None of that requires a weapon in the nose, but it can shape how weapons are used later.

There is also a basic tactical benefit that is easy to overlook. An XL-AUV can be pre-positioned. It can loiter quietly in waters where a surface ship would be noticed immediately. The unit cost should be a fraction of a manned submarine patrol and the political cost is lower too. If lost, you lose a vehicle and a payload, not a crew. That allows riskier routes, closer standoff in contested straits, and more aggressive mapping of seabed features. The trade-off is bandwidth and command authority. An autonomous system makes its own decisions between updates. That is where the software-first design matters, because users will want to keep adding behaviors without rebuilding the hull.

The wider picture explains why a company like Anduril is scaling up its undersea line. Underwater infrastructure is now an explicit target set. After the sabotage of energy pipelines and the broader worry about data cables, protection of the seabed has moved from niche to headline. At the same time, great-power competition is pushing investment into long-range sensing and attritable platforms. The United States and its allies are all testing or fielding extra-large unmanned submarines. Several Asia-Pacific navies, worried about choke points and the security of sea lines of communication, are hunting for persistent ISR options that do not consume precious ship days. European fleets face similar pressures in the North Atlantic and the High North, where weather and distance punish manned patrol cycles. An XL-AUV with weeks of autonomy answers a lot of those problems in a quiet, scalable way.

The message is clear: build a big, modular, electric AUV that borrows a proven software architecture, offer it with sensible payload volume and straightforward logistics, and put long-range missions within reach of customers who cannot afford fleets of crewed submarines. The details on the stand were pragmatic rather than theatrical and that fits the use case. What navies will judge next is reliability in salt water, the pace of software updates, and the maturity of payload integrations. If those pieces line up, Dive-XL gives planners a long-legged undersea asset for surveillance, mine warfare and seabed security that can be bought in numbers and sent places where a surface ship would draw too much attention.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.