New Sea Dart UUV Launched for Counter-Mine & Survey Missions

Leidos is unveiling Sea Dart, a high-performance, low-cost, flexible, and adaptable uncrewed undersea vessel (UUV) designed to support the U.S. Navy and commercial users across a broad range of missions.

The new capability from Leidos’ Sea Systems team currently comes in two standard diameters—six and nine inches—and is transportable by one or two people. It is payload-agnostic and compatible with the U.S. Navy’s preferred Underwater Vehicle software architecture as well as the U.S. Navy’s new non-propagating UUV battery design.

Sea Dart’s high performance and low cost make it ideal for difficult missions in contested, high-risk environments and for use in scientific and research settings where affordability is paramount. A 12 ¾-inch diameter version is currently under consideration.

Depending on payload and configuration, Leidos’ Sea Dart UUV can assist in counter-mine operations, underwater surveys, undersea infrastructure monitoring, battlespace preparation, environmental sensing, and other missions that benefit from the proliferation of low-cost, high-capability UUVs.

The system’s ability to operate at tactically relevant speeds and depths for hours while providing significant payload power translates to rapid deployment and mission flexibility. Its low cost—up to 80–90% less than other small UUVs with similar performance—makes Sea Dart an ideal option when both performance and budget efficiency matter.

Sea Dart joins Leidos’ robust autonomous Sea Systems portfolio, including the new small unmanned surface vessel (USV)—Sea Archer—and the operationally proven medium USVs—Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Ranger, and Mariner.

Dave Lewis, senior vice president of Sea Systems for the company, commented, “For more than two decades, Leidos has been at the forefront of supporting the U.S. Navy with cutting-edge autonomous subsurface and surface vessels. Sea Dart is the next step in the progressive evolution of our UUV product line, introducing a new, low-cost commercial UUV to the market. It offers the flexibility to fully customize customer payloads while staying true to our core commitment to keeping production costs significantly lower than other models.”