Innovation beneath the waves: Sea Dart, new unmanned undersea vessel, unveiled

American defense, aviation and technology company Leidos has announced a new capability from its sea systems team called Sea Dart, a flexible and adaptable uncrewed undersea vessel (UUV).

Sea Dart currently comes in two different standard diameters, six and nine inches, and is transportable by one or two people. It is payload agnostic and compatible with the US Navy’s preferred underwater vehicle software architecture as well as the US Navy’s new non-propagating UUV battery design.

The company also noted that a 12 ¾ inch diameter version is under consideration.

Depending on payload and configuration, Leidos’ Sea Dart UUV can assist in counter-mine operations, underwater survey, undersea infrastructure configuration monitoring, battlespace preparation, environmental sensing, and other missions.

“With two variants that Leidos designers and engineers took from design concept to functional test in a year, Leidos’ Sea Dart family of UUVs demonstrates our ability to rapidly innovate and deliver flexible, adaptable and affordable maritime solutions,” it was stated.

Leidos has earlier developed the small USV Sea Archer, and medium USVs: Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Ranger and Marine.