Miles Jamison 
- Ultra Maritime’s Sea Spear showcased its undersea detection, tracking and classification abilities during the Navy’s Lanternfish exercise
- The deployable sonar system tracked medium and large UUVs while sharing data with undersea command centers
- The demonstration highlighted Sea Spear’s continuous acoustic sensing capabilities in a port protection scenario
Ultra Maritime said Thursday that it demonstrated a capability to detect and classify advanced unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs, during the U.S. Navy’s 2026 Lanternfish exercise.
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What Did the Demonstration Show?
Sea Spear, Ultra Maritime’s deployable sonar system, repeatedly detected, tracked and classified medium and large diameter UUVs during a port protection scenario, while sending track data to undersea command centers worldwide. The system showcased its capacity for continuous acoustic sensing. The port protection scenario gave the Navy and industry partners a chance to observe the undersea technology under real-world conditions.
The demonstration comes as Lockheed Martin moves to acquire Ultra Maritime in a $3.45 billion deal that would add the company’s sonar, autonomous sensing and other undersea warfare capabilities to Lockheed’s portfolio.
How Does Sea Spear Work With Anduril’s System?
The demonstration also marked progress in a partnership between Ultra Maritime and Anduril aimed at advancing covert anti-submarine warfare and undersea surveillance by pairing Sea Spear’s deployable acoustic arrays and artificial intelligence-enabled acoustic processing with Anduril’s undersea autonomy capabilities and Lattice communications network.
By integrating Sea Spear with Anduril’s Seabed Sentry, the companies created an undersea network built around autonomous distributed sensors that can scale in production and deploy quickly. Manned and unmanned platforms alike can carry the network into place, allowing it to maintain persistent sensing at strategic waterways and maritime choke points.
