Lockheed Martin unveils undersea drone that hitches rides on ships, submarines

Lockheed Martin has revealed a striking new uncrewed undersea vehicle designed to quietly reshape naval warfare. Dubbed Lamprey, the modular, autonomous platform can latch onto the hulls of ships and submarines to travel covertly into contested waters—then detach to conduct surveillance, deploy weapons, or lie in wait on the seabed.

Lockheed Martin’s newly unveiled Lamprey is a multi-mission autonomous undersea vehicle (MMAUV) aimed at expanding how navies monitor, contest, and deny access to strategic maritime spaces. The system, as noted by The War Zone (TWZ), is designed to ride undetected beneath friendly surface vessels or submarines, arriving in operational areas with fully charged batteries and ready payloads.

Lamprey features a distinctive square hullform and offers 24 cubic feet of internal payload capacity. It is electrically powered and includes a built-in hydrogenerator that can recharge its batteries during missions. Propulsion is provided by two rear-mounted propulsors and two additional units embedded laterally in the body, enhancing maneuverability.

“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,” according to a press release put out on February 9. “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. “

A key feature highlighted in Lockheed Martin’s promotional material is Lamprey’s ability to launch uncrewed aerial systems. Renderings show configurations with up to three retractable twin-tube launchers capable of deploying as many as six drones for surveillance or strike missions. The company has emphasized that the aerial drone designs shown are conceptual rather than representations of existing systems.

Lamprey can also be configured to launch lightweight torpedoes from an internal bay and deploy decoys resembling the U.S. Navy’s Mk 39 Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Target (EMATT), which simulates the acoustic signature of a full-sized submarine. The vehicle may also carry its own sensor suite, potentially including sonar, passive radio-frequency detection, and optical systems.

Communications are shown via a retractable mast near the surface or through seabed nodes while submerged. In one scenario depicted by Lockheed Martin, Lamprey relays targeting data to an F-35 fighter jet, which then conducts a missile strike against an enemy vessel.

Perhaps Lamprey’s most novel capability is its ability to attach itself to the hulls of ships and submarines—a nod to the parasitic eel from which it takes its name. This allows friendly platforms to discreetly deploy and recover multiple units, or potentially enables Lamprey to act as a loitering threat in chokepoints and contested littorals.

While many technical details—such as range, endurance, unit cost, and development status—remain undisclosed, analysts note that systems like Lamprey could significantly complicate adversary naval operations.

As TWZ reports, the unveiling underscores a broader global trend toward distributed, autonomous undersea networks, with similar concepts emerging from companies like Anduril and increasing interest from major naval powers worldwide.

By Sabina Mammadli