Lockheed Martin is highlighting a successful collaboration with Saildrone, a specialist in maritime autonomous systems.

Basically, an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) was equipped with lethal defence technology, the live-fire of which was demonstrated out on the water.

“Lockheed Martin and Saildrone are leading the way to leverage the strength of industry to deliver autonomous platforms with containeriesd capabilities for our national defense,” said Paul Lemmo, General Manager for Sensors, Effectors and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin.

“We will continue to invest in new capabilities ahead of need to accelerate and de-risk deployment of urgently needed defense technologies.”

ARES

Specifically, a Surveyor class Saildrone was working in coordination with the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. And it was enabled by the Navy’s ARES, which is a remotely operated combat system.

The Saildrone Surveyor acted on target data for a surrogate high-speed surface craft, say the organisations. And the location for the remote missile launch was near Hawaii. It was during the exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026, described as the world’s largest international naval exercise.

The demonstration went from concept to demonstration within six months of partnership with the United States Navy.

Kinetic capabilities

Richard Jenkins, Saildrone’s founder and CEO, added:

“This successful live fire demonstration was the result of pairing one of the most tried and trusted munitions with the most operationally deployed class of USV on the planet.”

“Not only does this deliver mission-ready, kinetic USV capability today but it also de-risks and accelerates our journey of fitting more sophisticated kinetic capabilities, like the Mk70 launcher, to our larger platform, the Saildrone Spectre. Saildrone will continue to develop our platform capabilities to meet the rapidly evolving operational requirements of our customers.”

Investment

Backin November 2025, Lockheed Martin invested $50 million in Saildrone.

The collaboration with Lockheed Martin was for Saildrone to add electronic warfare capabilities to its platforms. These include support for anti-submarine warfare, and surveillance and reconnaissance.

At the time, the companies had the goal of delivering the upgrade of the USVs in 2026. This was to include such on-water, live-fire demonstrations.