National Interest

by Peter Suciu

    The new Lamprey drone is built to attach directly to a host ship’s hull, allowing it to detach quickly and without needing to be submerged into the water first.

    The notion of attaching weapons to the outside of a ship’s hull dates back centuries.

    During the American Revolution, patriot inventor David Bushnell developed the “Turtle,” largely recognized as the world’s first submarine. The one-man submersible was built to float up to British warships in New York Harbor undetected and attach explosive charges to their hulls. The Turtle made several attempts to carry out that mission, but all failed before it was sunk; its final fate is unknown.

    In the 250 years since, many navies have developed “limpet mines,” magnetic mines that attach to a ship’s steel hull and can be detonated remotely. These weapons can be attached by naval divers, or “frogmen”—but drones are far more likely to take on the task today. This use has been seen during the ongoing Ukraine War, where Ukraine’s Sea Baby Drones have been used with success to disable Russian warships in port. However, undersea drones could also be used to degrade an enemy vessel in a very different way.

• Lockheed Martin’s Lamprey Drone Can Hitch a Ride on a Ship

    This month, defense giant Lockheed Martin unveiled the “Lamprey,” a Multi-Mission Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (MMAUV) that can attach to a ship’s hull to essentially hitch a ride. Instead of delivering an explosive package, the Lamprey can fill a role similar to the so-called “Loyal Wingmen” aerial drones now being developed to serve alongside manned fighters.

    The Lamprey, named for a type of fish that attaches itself to larger aquatic organisms, could serve as a force multiplier by providing additional sensors to a friendly warship or submarine. As it is attached to the exterior of the hull, it could be deployed quickly without requiring the “mother ship” to slow down and manually drop it into the water.

    Moreover, by being carried on the hull, the drone can be recharged by the flow of water around it, for instance through a small turbine. That can allow a drone to “reach the area of operations with 100% battery life, ready for action,” Marine Insight reported.

    As a modular platform with an open-architecture system, the Lamprey can accommodate a variety of modules within its 24-cubic-foot (0.68-cubic-meter) bay. According to Lockheed Martin, the modules could include retractable drone launchers, electronic warfare (EW) systems, acoustic decoys, deployable sensors for intelligence gathering, or even a lightweight anti-submarine torpedo.

• The Lamprey Could Also Be a “Parasite” on Enemy Ships

    The Lamprey MMAUV was developed with dual-mode mission capabilities. It could “can execute Assured Access (stealthy intelligence, persistent surveillance, precision strike) or Sea Denial (electronic disruption, decoy deployment, kinetic attack), giving commanders a single platform that flips the maritime balance of power,” Lockheed Martin noted.

    Although reports have noted that the Lamprey could hitch a ride on friendly vessels, it could just as easily attach to a potential adversary’s warship and act as a mine—or perhaps be brought into a harbor undetected, to engage in further mayhem once inside.

    Platforms like the Lamprey also fill the void on the smaller end of the US Navy’s needs, even as the higher-ups are focused on a new class of battleships.

    “The modern battlespace demands platforms that hide, adapt and dominate,” explained Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager of Sensors, Effectors & Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin. “LampreyMMAUV was internally funded, letting us iterate at lightning speed and hand the Navy a true multi-mission weapon that detects, disrupts, decoys and engages on its own.”