Leidos Enhances Naval Capabilities with Sea Dart Undersea Naval Drone Featuring Flexible Payloads.

Leidos, an American leading defense and technology solutions provider, has unveiled its latest maritime innovation: the Sea Dart, a high-performance, low-cost Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle (UUV) designed to meet the U.S. Navy's and commercial customers' operational needs. Officially announced on April 7, 2025, Sea Dart is the newest addition to Leidos’ growing portfolio of autonomous maritime systems and marks a significant step forward in making advanced undersea capabilities more accessible and mission-adaptable.
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Graphic rendering of the Leidos Sea Dart uncrewed undersea vehicle (UUV), showcasing its compact, modular design. Optimized for multi-mission versatility, the Sea Dart supports payload configurations for mine countermeasures, surveillance, infrastructure monitoring, and environmental sensing in both military and commercial maritime operations. (Picture source: Leidos)

According to Dave Lewis, Senior Vice President of Sea Systems at Leidos, Sea Dart represents the natural evolution of the company's two-decade-long effort in autonomous surface and subsurface vessel development. “Sea Dart is the next step in the progressive evolution of our UUV (Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle) product line,” Lewis said. “It offers the flexibility to fully customize customer payloads while keeping production costs significantly lower than other models.”

The Sea Dart is built around the principles of modularity, rapid deployment, and affordability. Offered in two initial diameters—six inches (15.2 cm) and nine inches (22.9 cm)—the UUV is lightweight and compact enough to be carried and deployed by one or two individuals, making it ideal for expeditionary operations and rapid-response scenarios. A larger 12.75-inch (32.4 cm) diameter version is currently under consideration to support heavier payloads and extended mission requirements.

Sea Dart is fully payload-agnostic and has been engineered to integrate seamlessly with the U.S. Navy’s preferred underwater vehicle software architecture. It is also compatible with the Navy’s new non-propagating UUV battery design, providing both safety and enhanced endurance. These features allow operators to tailor the vehicle for a wide range of missions, including mine countermeasures, battlespace preparation, undersea infrastructure surveillance, environmental and oceanographic sensing, and detailed seabed mapping. Its ability to support high-capacity payloads while operating at tactically relevant speeds and depths gives it a significant edge over existing small UUV platforms.

Each of these mission sets aligns directly with the evolving demands of modern naval warfare. In the mine countermeasures role, Sea Dart can autonomously navigate minefields and use precision sensors to detect, classify, and map threats without risking human life. For battlespace preparation, the UUV gathers hydrographic and topographic data, enabling submarine and amphibious forces to plan operations with greater accuracy. In strategic infrastructure monitoring, Sea Dart is particularly valuable for inspecting undersea cables, pipelines, and offshore installations—key assets increasingly at risk in geopolitical flashpoints.

Environmental and oceanographic sensing capabilities make Sea Dart equally valuable in peacetime or research settings. The system supports naval sonar operations, submarine navigation, and climate research by collecting real-time data on water conditions, currents, and acoustic properties. Its small profile and low acoustic signature also make it ideal for covert intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions in denied or contested maritime areas.

One of Sea Dart’s most compelling advantages is its cost. With a unit price estimated between $100,000 and $150,000 (approximately €92,000 to €138,000), the system is 80 to 90 percent less expensive than similarly performing UUVs currently on the market. This low price point opens the door to wide-scale proliferation of undersea drones—a strategic asset for navies embracing distributed maritime operations and seabed warfare. Leidos estimates that for an investment of $100 million (around €92 million), between 600 and 700 Sea Dart units could be produced, offering a transformative capability for cost-effective maritime surveillance and sea control.

This affordability not only encourages quantity but also enables new operational concepts. Navies can deploy swarms or layered networks of UUVs for persistent surveillance, reconnaissance, and early warning—extending the reach and resilience of naval forces without increasing manpower or exposure. The Sea Dart’s modular payload architecture allows rapid reconfiguration between missions, supporting agile responses to evolving threats.

Sea Dart’s rapid development cycle also underscores Leidos’ commitment to accelerated capability delivery. The current variants were taken from concept to full functional test in just one year, showcasing the company's ability to respond quickly to evolving operational requirements.

The UUV joins Leidos’ expanding portfolio of uncrewed maritime platforms, which also includes the small unmanned surface vessel Sea Archer and the operationally proven medium USVs Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Ranger, and Mariner. Together, these systems form a comprehensive suite of autonomous solutions designed to enhance maritime domain awareness, force projection, and infrastructure protection.

As defense forces around the globe continue to seek cost-effective, flexible, and scalable solutions for undersea dominance, the Sea Dart is poised to become a cornerstone of next-generation maritime strategy—blending affordability, performance, and adaptability in a compact and mission-ready platform. Its introduction marks a paradigm shift in the role of UUVs, enabling tactical and strategic operations once reserved for larger, more costly manned assets.