Orca
Autonomous underwater vehicleWikipedia
10
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
4
PODCASTS
Search complete. 10 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Orca".
Oct 17, 2026
James FanellGUEST
And so, the fact that no US Navy warship has been hit in this last seven months is a miracle.
David ZereHOST
I've been intervi- viewing drone manufacturers all over the country in Camp Atterbury, Spacecom, Special Operation Force this week, and, um, I interviewed the head of the Orca program, right? You have...
David ZereHOST
You can put 300 in a container on a ship, and you throw them off the side of the ship.
David ZereHOST
They have a radar signature of, like, a seagull, and they fly at wave top, you know.
James CurranSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So the debate over grand ambition is I think, even if indirectly, highlighting the frailties of contemporary Australian foreign policy.
James CurranSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
In an age when successive governments have given more and more to Washington in terms of logistical and military access to the Australian continent, when Morrison and Albanese have stubbornly refused to win the social license for the Orca submarine project, and when the Murdoch press endlessly indulges in yellow journalism about the China threat, Keating is raising issues centrally concerned with the country's autonomy and sovereignty, and about how it learns to live in an Asia where the US may well end up being not the guarantor, but balancing power.
James CurranSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
China may not have to win every facet of its strategic competition with the US in order to dominate Asia.
James CurranSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So what does this mean for Australia? We don't have to beat China, but we have to live with China.
Richard DunleyHOST
Um, and I think a lot of people have remained somewhat skeptical about range and, um, kind of the, those sort of capabilities.
Richard DunleyHOST
Um, and that's why you've got things like the Boeing Orca, which operates a diesel electric, which is a very different kind of beast.
Richard DunleyHOST
Um, but this appears to be a different approach again.
Richard DunleyHOST
Um, and I must say, I've always, um, thought that mothership approach is, is something which I think we will see a lot more of with the rise of uncrewed systems.
7 MINS LATER
Jennifer ParkerHOST
Yes.
Jennifer ParkerHOST
Right.
Jennifer ParkerHOST
So they were meant to, or they were indicating they were going to announce how many Orcas SSNs they would acquire by the time the defense investment plan was out, and obviously that was delayed.
Jennifer ParkerHOST
Um, it kind of brought down the government in the end.
Richard DunleyHOST
but I'm not entirely sure quite that I understand some of the logic behind it.
Richard DunleyHOST
But anyway, so this is the story that the in-off Faslane, so Scottish Waters, a UK XLUUV, so Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle, released, flash-fired, a US Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo.
Richard DunleyHOST
Now, obviously, Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo, primary ASW weapon of the United States Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.
Richard DunleyHOST
And it's a obviously a very important capability in that kind of space.
Richard DunleyHOST
So it's been part of this AUKUS progress in underwater systems and underwater systems payloads and underwater systems connectivity for some time.
Richard DunleyHOST
But I'm just really intrigued by this release slash firing of the torpedo because of the known challenges around being able to actually use kinetic force from a uv um how do you do it in terms of um uh in terms of legality in terms of ethics in terms of maintaining humans on the loop all of these sorts of things um which have led to much of the focus on UUV payloads.
Richard DunleyHOST
And we only saw that relatively recently with discussion around a new, very interesting looking payload for the Orca UUV, which is kind of like a, almost a captor mine, but like a captor mine on steroids that can also fire a Mark 48 torpedo.
Richard DunleyHOST
But anyway, that's why really, interested in it but i'm still slightly confused by it what are you what's your take
Chris ServelloHOST
China is known to have built at least two so-called extra-extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles that have been seen operating in Hainan.
Chris ServelloHOST
One of the craft is about 115 feet long, the other nearly 150 feet long, about six to eight times the overall size of the Boeing's Orca XLUUV developed for the U.S. Navy.
Chris ServelloHOST
It is likely, Sutton wrote, that the two XXLUUVs are in direct competition.
Chris ServelloHOST
A mothership for the craft could allow them to be deployed