Lockheed Martin has unveiled the Lamprey Multi-Mission Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (MMAUV), a new unmanned underwater drone that can attach itself to the hulls of surface ships or submarines to travel covertly to operational areas and recharge its batteries via built-in hydro-generators while underway.

Once deployed, the modular vehicle can carry and launch a variety of payloads—including aerial drones, torpedoes, decoys, and sensors—to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, and other undersea missions. Designed for persistence and flexibility in contested maritime environments, Lamprey’s ability to hitch a ride on host vessels aims to extend autonomous undersea presence with minimal support infrastructure. Read Lockheed Martin’s full press release:

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) unveils the Lamprey Multi‑Mission Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (MMAUV), a breakthrough “plug-and‑play” submersible that gives U.S. and allied warfighters technological and strategic advantage in today’s contested maritime arena.

Built with the U.S. Navy’s need for covert, assured access and sea denial operations, LampreyMMAUV can arrive in theater with a fully charged battery. Mimicking nature, it can hitch a ride on a host surface vessel or submarine, utilize hydrogenators to charge batteries and arrive in theater ready for operational missions. Lockheed Martin’s LampreyMMAUV can perform a wide range of missions including delivering undersea and air kinetic and non-kinetic effects; performing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, and multi-intelligence collection; and deploying equipment to the seafloor.

“The modern battlespace demands platforms that hide, adapt and dominate,” said Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager of Sensors, Effectors & Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin. “LampreyMMAUV was internally funded, letting us iterate at lightning speed and hand the Navy a true multi mission weapon that detects, disrupts, decoys and engages on its own.

Key Innovations that Put the Navy Ahead

• Novel Range and Placement – Mimicking nature, the vehicle attaches onto a host surface ship or submarine – no host modifications needed – once attached it recharges batteries with built‑in hydrogenators.

• Deployable Payload Centric Design – From anti‑submarine torpedoes to UAV launchers, the open‑architecture payload bay lets customers tailor the vehicle to any mission set.

• Dual‑Mode Mission Set – LampreyMMAUV can execute Assured Access (stealthy intelligence, persistent surveillance, precision strike) or Sea Denial (electronic disruption, decoy deployment, kinetic attack), giving commanders a single platform that flips the maritime balance of power.

Delivering Impact

By providing persistent, autonomous undersea presence at dramatically lower cost than manned platforms, LampreyMMAUV denied areas and control the seabed.

Read more here.