Leidos commences Australian build of Sea Archer USV

The move into local manufacturing of autonomous vessels fast-tracks proven US capability to Australia, harnessing Leidos’ 50-year heritage with the US Navy and its record of more than 120,000 fully autonomous nautical miles at sea.

At the heart of Sea Archer is Leidos’ advanced autonomy platform, LAVA (Leidos Autonomous Vessel Architecture), which enables high-speed, long-range and smart mission execution across diverse maritime environments. Seamlessly integrated with Leidos’ broader battle management technologies, including ADEPT and AlphaMosaic, which harness AI to support distributed, autonomous fleet operations, Sea Archer embodies the future of naval capability: intelligent, adaptable and affordable.

Built for speed, endurance and multi-mission payloads, Sea Archer can reach sprint speeds up to 40 knots and has a range of 1,500 nautical miles. With a flexible payload bay capacity of more than 900 kilograms, Sea Archer can support a wide range of mission options, including strike, logistics resupply, ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), and electromagnetic deception operations.

The Australian production of Sea Archer will use local capability across the supply chain from build to payload integration, autonomy software design and ship maintenance, supporting a robust sovereign ecosystem, rapid production and sustainment. NSW Central Coast-based Oceans Rivers Lakes has been appointed to build the first aluminium vessel and construction is already underway.

Leidos Australia’s technical team will lead the integration of its autonomy software platform, which has already been successfully deployed across 12 different USV platforms.

“Given Australia’s vast northern approaches, platforms with coverage, endurance and agility are critical,” Leidos Australia chief executive Paul Chase said.

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“The capability to monitor large areas, detect security threats, navigate hazardous environments and provide continuous uncrewed support enhances our nation’s security posture, especially in today’s geostrategic environment.

“We’re aiming to deliver a rapid production capability, and because of its easy-to-build aluminium hull, Sea Archer can be built at multiple shipyards across Australia.

“This approach will allow us to quickly deliver flexible, adaptable and affordable maritime solutions, using our fleet or customer vessels, to support mission needs.”

Along with Sea Archer, Leidos’ Sea Systems portfolio includes operationally proven medium USVs – Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Ranger and Mariner – as well as a range of undersea systems including Sea Castle, Sea Spector and Sea Dart, a high-performance, low-cost, flexible and adaptable uncrewed undersea vessel. Sea Archer is currently undergoing sea trials in the US and is expected to be mission-ready by 2026.