The maker of the Ghost Shark submarine drone has warned Australia needs to be able to produce its own weapons domestically to deter aggressors, after the Ukraine war sparked a global rush to bolster homegrown defence capabilities.

In Ukraine, the mass deployment of low-cost drones has transformed the battlefield, setting off a push by governments to look at defence technology that can be produced more cheaply and on home soil, rather than through the complex supply chains used for most military hardware today.

An example of the trend in Australia is the Ghost Shark, an automated submarine, which will be produced in a Sydney factory being officially opened this week. The federal government announced in September it would buy an unspecified number of Australian-designed Ghost Sharks for $1

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