Lockheed Martin announced a $50 million investment in Saildrone, a company building maritime autonomous systems that run on renewable energy. This strategic collaboration will deliver commercially available unmanned surface vehicles (USV) equipped with lethal defense technology. The companies will collaborate with a goal of delivering integrations, including on-water, live fire demonstrations, in 2026.
Larger Saildrone vehicles are already in development to support significantly larger payloads and capabilities to include the Lockheed Martin Mk70 VLS launcher and thin line towed arrays.
“For the last 10 years we have focused on evolving the reliability, endurance and autonomy of the Saildrone platform, which has been demonstrated in over 2 million nautical miles of active customer missions. With our technology proven, de-risked and mission ready, now is the right time to augment Saildrone USVs with sophisticated payloads to meet warfighter needs. This collaboration will give Saildrone the tools we need to transform the capabilities of our platforms, to include electronic warfare, anti-submarine warfare, sophisticated surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as deploying kinetic effects, all seamlessly integrated with Lockheed Martin’s trusted command, control and fire control systems," said Saildrone CEO Richard Jenkins in a statement.
First deployed by the U.S. Navy in 2021, Saildrone USVs are currently operational today. This commercial relationship will harness Saildrone’s decade-plus of commercial expertise to quickly field new defense applications. Saildrone will maintain all shipbuilding responsibilities and Lockheed Martin will serve as lead mission integrator.
The companies are focusing on integrating ready-now, proven capabilities with Saildrone USVs to get unmatched lethality into the hands of warfighters as soon as possible.
Developing these USVs will create jobs at Austal USA on the coast of the Gulf of America, where Saildrone’s larger systems are produced.
