Sea Dart

Sea Dart is Leidos' compact, payload-agnostic uncrewed undersea vessel designed for affordable underwater survey, infrastructure monitoring, counter-mine and environmental missions.

Facts

  • Company: Leidos
  • Type: Compact Uuv
  • Positioning: Sea Dart
  • Function: Flexible sensing
  • Audience: Maritime operators
  • Status: Development
  • Website: https://www.leidos.com/markets/maritime

About

About Sea Dart

Leidos introduced Sea Dart in April 2025 as a compact uncrewed undersea vehicle family for lower-cost naval, commercial and research missions. The tested six-inch and nine-inch variants are transportable by one or two people and accept customer-selected payloads. Both use the U.S. Navy’s preferred underwater-vehicle software architecture and are compatible with its non-propagating UUV battery design.

Payload and configuration determine the mission, with Leidos identifying mine countermeasures, underwater survey, infrastructure monitoring, battlespace preparation and environmental sensing. The company states that Sea Dart can operate for hours at tactically relevant speed and depth while supplying substantial payload power. Engineers moved both standard diameters from concept to functional testing within a year; a larger 12.75-inch version remains under consideration and is not treated as a current production variant.

Specifications

  • Battery Compatibility: Compatible with the U.S. Navy's non-propagating UUV battery design
  • Payload Options: Payload agnostic; configurable customer payloads
  • Software Interfaces: Compatible with the U.S. Navy's preferred Underwater Vehicle software architecture
  • Diameter Range: 6 in and 9 in standard diameters
  • Transportability: Transportable by one or two people

Market context

Maritime operators

  • Peer Group: Maritime AUV, Commercial Survey AUV, Autonomous underwater vehicle, Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle
  • Workflow: Underwater Robotics
  • Orpheus AUV - Orpheus Ocean - Auv

View market context

Timeline

  • Leidos introduces Sea Dart UUV family - 2025-04-07 - Product Launch - The tested standard variants use six-inch and nine-inch diameters and can be transported by one or two people. Sea Dart accepts customer payloads and supports the Navy’s preferred underwater software architecture and… - source: leidos.com

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