Elodie Collins 
Lockheed Martin is investing $50 million in Saildrone, a maritime defense company that develops autonomous systems for military missions, to accelerate the development of unmanned surface vehicles equipped with advanced defense technologies.
How Does the Collaboration Support National Defense Priorities?
Saildrone said Wednesday that the investment will establish an integration team that will equip Saildrone’s Surveyor platform with the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile Quad Launcher, or JQL, missile system to meet the U.S. Navy’s requirement for an unmanned surface vehicle capable of conducting undersea surveillance, reconnaissance, attack and fleet defense activities.
The companies intend to conduct live fire demonstrations of the combined technologies in 2026.
Stephanie Hill, president of Rotary and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin and a three-time Wash100 winner, commented that the partnership answers President Donald Trump’s call to harness the collective power of industry to strengthen national defense.
“Together, we are combining the most sophisticated commercial and defense technologies to deliver a lethal naval solution at speed and scale,” she said. “The nation needs this capability to maintain dominance over our adversaries, and we will deliver it.”
Saildrone CEO Richard Jenkins called the investment transformational in an interview with Breaking Defense and said it would enable his company’s USVs to deliver a heavier impact and firepower that larger ships need.
Saildrone is currently developing larger USVs to support bigger payloads, including Lockheed’s Mk70 VLS launcher and thin line towed arrays.
