U.S. Tests Rampage Uncrewed Surface Vessels With Skelmir S6 Underwater Drones to Reshape Naval Strikes.

Havoc announced on March 17, 2026, that it had teamed with Lockheed Martin and Vatn Systems in West Palm Beach to demonstrate coordinated maritime autonomy using Rampage surface drones and Skelmir S6 underwater vehicles. The test introduced a multi-platform combat concept designed to connect surface strike, subsurface engagement, and battle damage assessment within a single unmanned mission architecture.

The demonstration marked an early milestone in the development of a broader autonomy orchestration capability and highlighted how U.S. companies are moving toward interoperable naval drone operations. It featured three live mission scenarios, including a coordinated subsurface attack, an independent surface strike, and a post-mission assessment, showing how software integration can link diverse unmanned systems in a representative operational environment.

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Havoc, Lockheed Martin, and Vatn Systems demonstrated a coordinated maritime autonomy concept linking Rampage USVs and Skelmir S6 UUVs to execute multi-phase naval strike missions across surface and subsurface domains (Picture Source: HavocAI)

The development centers on Havoc’s Rampage uncrewed surface vessels operating as more than simple stand-off attack craft. According to the companies’ description of the demonstration, three Rampage platforms were linked to Lockheed Martin’s user interface and teamed with Vatn Systems’ Skelmir S6 unmanned underwater vehicles in a live test sequence designed to validate collaborative multi-domain autonomy. Havoc described its software as the connective layer enabling mission execution across simulated and physical assets, suggesting that the central innovation was not only the boats or underwater vehicles themselves, but the command-and-control architecture allowing them to act as a coordinated system. This point is especially important because it highlights the growing role of software as the real enabler of distributed maritime combat.

That architecture was exercised through three separate mission plays. In the first, a Rampage deployed two Skelmir S6 underwater drones for a coordinated subsurface engagement. In the second, another Rampage conducted an independent surface strike. In the third, a separate Rampage performed post-mission battle damage assessment, indicating that the demonstration was designed to cover the full tactical cycle from target prosecution to strike confirmation. This sequence is notable because it mirrors the operational logic increasingly sought in modern naval warfare: find, fix, strike and assess without relying on a single manned platform to perform every stage of the mission. It also reflects the operational trend toward separating sensing, effect delivery, and assessment across multiple autonomous assets.

The product itself appears designed around flexibility and mission modularity. Rampage is presented not simply as a fast uncrewed surface vessel, but as a node capable of executing different operational roles depending on payload integration and mission design. In this test, it served both as a launch platform for underwater drones and as a surface strike asset in its own right, while another unit carried out battle damage assessment. The Skelmir S6 adds an underwater dimension that expands the engagement envelope and complicates an adversary’s defensive response. Lockheed Martin’s interface, meanwhile, points to a broader ambition: to give operators a common control layer capable of coordinating very different autonomous systems during the same mission sequence.

From an operational perspective, this remains an early milestone rather than a mature fielded program. Havoc itself framed the event as an initial demonstration reached within just a few months of collaboration, and described it as a prototype validating “simple yet robust” interfaces across a diverse set of platforms. That wording matters. It indicates the teams were not claiming to have unveiled a finished naval weapon system already in service, but rather a testable autonomy stack intended to prove that rapid integration can be achieved across multiple unmanned vehicles with different roles and operating environments. In practical terms, this places the demonstration within the wider evolution of naval experimentation, where rapid prototyping increasingly serves as the bridge between concept development and operational adoption.

Its tactical importance is easier to understand when viewed against the realities of contested littoral warfare. A surface drone that can release underwater effectors and then support strike assessment gives commanders several advantages at once: more stand-off from crewed vessels, a lower-cost way to saturate defenses, and greater flexibility in attacking targets that may be difficult to reach from only one axis. A subsurface vehicle launched forward from a USV could complicate an adversary’s defensive picture by forcing attention both above and below the waterline. The inclusion of battle damage assessment in the same demonstration also underlines a practical combat need, since confirmation of effects is often what determines whether a second strike, repositioning or withdrawal is required. This is where autonomy becomes tactically valuable not as a buzzword but as a force-multiplying enabler that can shorten the sensor-to-shooter loop.

The strategic implication extends beyond the specific platforms used in West Palm Beach. What Havoc, Lockheed Martin and Vatn Systems demonstrated is a path toward maritime kill webs built from smaller, distributable and more rapidly adaptable systems rather than a narrow dependence on large and expensive legacy platforms. For the United States and allied navies, that approach aligns with broader efforts to field mass, resilience and optionality in contested seas. For defense industry players, it also signals that future relevance may depend less on producing a single standout drone and more on offering interfaces, software layers and integration standards that allow many unmanned assets to operate together at speed. In that sense, the exercise points toward a broader industrial shift in which interoperability may become as decisive as the platform itself.

What gives this test particular weight is that it was not presented merely as a technology experiment, but as evidence that three separate organizations could move from collaboration to live mission execution in only a few months. That is a powerful message in a maritime environment increasingly shaped by autonomy, attrition and the need for rapid deployment. If the concept demonstrated by Rampage and Skelmir continues to mature, the real significance will not lie in one isolated strike drone or one underwater vehicle, but in the emergence of an integrated naval autonomy model able to compress decision-making, widen attack options and put credible combat effects into the water faster than conventional acquisition cycles usually allow.

Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.