Lockheed Martin is teaming up with Saildrone to equip the company’s USVs with multidomain defense technology for lethal military applications.
According to Naval News, Lockheed will invest $50 million in Saildrone to provide unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) equipped with lethal, combat-proven defense technology.
The companies will collaborate with the goal of achieving integrations, including live-fire waterborne demonstrations, as early as 2026. To reach this goal, work will begin immediately.
“Lockheed Martin and Saildrone are at the forefront of answering President Trump’s call for the defense industry to act differently and leverage the full strength of the entire industry for our national defense,” said Stephanie C. Hill, president of Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) business.
“Together, we are combining the most sophisticated commercial and defense technologies to deliver a lethal naval solution quickly and at scale. The nation needs this capability to maintain superiority over our adversaries, and we will deliver it.”
An open-architecture approach will be applied, along with secure command and control capabilities, to integrate Lockheed Martin’s JAGM Quad Launcher (JQL) system onto the Saildrone Surveyor platform.
Larger Saildrone vehicles are already under development to support significantly larger payloads and capabilities, including Lockheed Martin’s VLS Mk70 launcher and fine-line towed antennas.
“For the past 10 years, we’ve focused our efforts on enhancing the reliability, toughness, and autonomy of the Saildrone platform, proven over more than 2 million nautical miles on active missions with customers,” said Richard Jenkins, founder and CEO of Saildrone.
“With our proven technology, mitigated risk, and mission-ready solutions, now is the right time to equip Saildrone’s USVs with sophisticated payloads to meet the needs of warfighters.”
Photo: Saildrone. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
