Saildrone’s unmanned surface vessels are designed for endurance and autonomous operations, with more than a decade of experience in remote open-ocean environments and millions of nautical miles logged. First deployed by the U.S. Navy in 2021, the vessels are currently operating continuously alongside U.S. sailors in combat theatres worldwide.
Following months-long deployments, Saildrone vessels have recently logged more than 130,000 nautical miles across 2,700 cumulative mission days, detecting 116,000 unique contacts. These operational results underpin the companies’ plans to expand the vessels’ role in maritime defence missions.
Beginning with the integration of the JAGM Quad Launcher on Saildrone’s Surveyor platform, Lockheed Martin will add defence payloads to transform commercial autonomy into a multi-mission maritime solution. The enhanced capability is intended to support fleet defence, undersea surveillance, reconnaissance and strike missions.
Work on the integration will begin immediately, with plans to expand Lockheed Martin payloads across multiple Saildrone platforms to support the Navy’s unmanned vision at scale. The investment is also intended to support distributed maritime operations and the Navy’s objective of achieving affordable mass by 2027 through open-architecture and secure command-and-control frameworks.
Lockheed Martin and Saildrone plan to deliver proof-of-concept integrations and live fire demonstrations in 2026 as the partnership progresses. Larger Saildrone vehicles are already in development to support increased payload capacity, including Lockheed Martin’s Mk70 vertical launch system and thin line towed arrays.
