SAN DIEGO — Lockheed Martin rapidly developed its new Lamprey multi-mission autonomous undersea vehicle: The company took just 14 months to develop Lamprey, with future plans to field larger variants and another drone by the end of the year.

Lockheed Martin showcased a model of Lamprey for the first time at WEST 2026. Mark Johnson, program director for unmanned maritime solutions division, discussed the highlights and future iterations of the multi-mission system with Naval News. 

Named after the Lamprey, a fish that latches onto others with its sucking mouth, the drone combines numerous features that the company claims could achieve various tailored missions in support of covert surveillance and sea denial. 

Given the drone’s namesake, Johnson explained Lamprey comes with this unique ability to latch onto submarines, warships and the seabed. This brings many key implications for operational use.

“This thing has suction cups on the top that basically can autonomously navigate to a sub, a ship, and it swims up and suctions on to the bottom of that vehicle,” said Johnson. “So it can hitch your ride into whatever theater it’s going to, because if you think about one of the restrictions or constraints of UUVs, it’s battery power. You need to get to where you got to get to. This can hitch a ride and not use power while it’s doing it.”

One suctioned onto a vessel, the drone can deploy hydrogenerators to charge itself on the way to its mission area. Johnson further stated that these onboard power sources can also support mission equipment carried aboard the Lamprey.