An uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) called Lamprey that can attach itself to ships, fire
anti-submarine torpedoes and launch airborne drones is envisioned as a future force-multiplier for the United States Navy.
The Lockheed Martin-designed Lamprey Multi Mission Autonomous Undersea Vehicle has a more than 7-meter payload bay that can be modified for operations that range from “seabed to the surface,” according to a February 2026 news release from the defense manufacturer. Lamprey, much like the parasitic fish it mimics, can attach to a host ship or submarine. It then uses built in hydrogenators to develop electricity from the motion of the vessel to recharge its batteries.
“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,” Mark Johnson, a Lockheed Martin program director, told Naval News at the recent West 2026 maritime conference in San Diego, California. “So, it can hitch (a) 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.”
The introduction of the Lamprey at the conference came amid an increased focus on uncrewed systems capable of augmenting U.S. surveillance and strike capabilities. It was also at West 2026 that U.S. Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, called for as many “effective, scalable, risk-worthy … multi-mission platforms we can build and sustain” during his keynote address, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper.
UUVs provide the capability to “strike vessels and other targets at long distances and can be launched from submarines and motherships, extending their range,” according to a December 2025 report by news website The War Zone on Ukraine’s UUV attack on a Russian navy vessel. These UUV capabilities also are becoming increasingly relevant in the strategically important Arctic as melting sea ice opens areas once inaccessible to uncrewed submersibles and submarines, according to a December 2025 report by the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Lamprey was conceived for this new type of warfare and was developed in 14 months, Johnson said. Some of Lamprey’s other potential capabilities, according to the defense contractor:
It can be used for missions that include “assured access” (stealthy intelligence, persistent surveillance, precision strike) or “sea denial” (electronic disruption, decoy deployment, kinetic attack).
It can be deployed in swarms and communicate with other unmanned systems.
Its open-architecture payload bay allows for a variety of weapons and other systems, including anti-submarine torpedoes, electronic warfare equipment, acoustic decoys and deployable sensors. It can also be equipped with up to three retractable twin-tube launchers for aerial drones.
“The modern battlespace demands platforms that hide, adapt and dominate,” Lockheed Martin’s Paul Lemmo said in the company news release. “[Lamprey] was internally funded, letting us iterate at lightning speed and hand the Navy a true multimission weapon that detects, disrupts, decoys and engages on its own.”