This company wants to stop underwater drones and even submarines with a whole new form of sonar technology

Ultra Maritime, a defense technology company, is developing a novel sonar system designed to combat the growing threat posed by underwater drones and even submarines. The company's solution involves pairing its Sea Spear passive sonar array with the AN/SSQ-125B active sonobuoy at the US Navy's Lanternfish 2026 exercise. While both types of sonar have been in use for decades, Ultra Maritime's innovative approach lies in the integration of these systems into a distributed architecture that connects them to Anduril's Seabed Sentry and the Navy's command systems.

The result is a powerful system that can detect and track unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) with greater precision, effectively countering the challenge posed by the proliferation of cheap and diverse drones that can target various naval assets. The company's technology leverages the strengths of both passive and active sonar, with passive sonar being quiet and providing a bearing on potential craft without revealing its position, and active sonar offering range and location information at the cost of revealing its presence.

Ultra Maritime has demonstrated the effectiveness of its Sea Spear and AN/SSQ-125B combination during the US Navy's 2026 Lanternfish exercise, successfully detecting and classifying UUVs of various sizes and sophistication. In addition to the exercise, the company has partnered with Anduril's Seabed Sentry to enhance its capabilities.

The timing of Ultra Maritime's development is particularly significant, as defense contractor Lockheed Martin recently acquired the company from its private equity owner for $3.45 billion, adding it to the latter's Rotary and Mission Systems division. As navies face increasing challenges in identifying and countering underwater drones, Ultra Maritime's two-pronged approach, combining existing seabed infrastructure with a network of inexpensive listening arrays and expendable pinging buoys, offers a promising solution to this growing threat.