Lockheed Martin Places $3.5B Bet on Undersea Warfare Tech

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is holding a big summit this week in Ankara, Turkey, and big spending is sure to be on the agenda. Lockheed Martin wants the group to know it offers all the tools that money can buy to defend the North Atlantic (and, well, any other body of water on the globe).

On Monday, the defense contracting giant agreed to pay $3.5 billion to take over naval-defense company Ultra Maritime, a division of an Advent International-owned company specializing in undersea technology that the Strait of Hormuz conflict has rendered a hot commodity.

Below the Surface

As with combat on land, the military conflicts in Ukraine and Iran have proven that modern naval warfare is increasingly defined by which side has the most numerous and sophisticated autonomous drones … and which side has the best systems to repel them. Enter Ultra Maritime, which makes advanced equipment to detect submarines, torpedoes and other underwater threats. Advent, the Boston-based private equity firm, created the company after acquiring UK-based Cobham for £4 billion ($5 billion) in 2019 and combining it with Ultra Electronics, which it bought in 2021 for £2.6 billion. According to a Financial Times report, Lockheed beat out several bidders for the unit, which has contracts with the US, UK, Canadian and Australian navies.

Business, unsurprisingly, has accelerated for the group in recent years:

• According to the FT, Ultra Maritime expects $784 million in revenue this year, up from $494 million in 2023. 
• Global defense spending, meanwhile, grew 2.5% in 2025 to $2.89 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That equated to 2.5% of total GDP, a record since 2009, the group said. NATO members, under pressure from the White House, have committed to increasing military spending to 5% of their GDP by 2035.

Offense/Defense: That increase means “tens of billions in new contracts” are likely to be announced at the NATO summit, which begins today and concludes tomorrow, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told CNBC on Monday. That’s enough to spur billions of dollars in deals. In completely related news, French defense giant Thales announced on Monday that it will buy a more than 35% stake in Paris-based naval drone maker Exail Technologies, a deal that values the company at $4.5 billion.

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