The world’s largest arms manufacturer will pay $3.45 billion for Ultra Maritime, the British submarine specialist created by the 2022 merger of two of the UK’s most prominent defense companies.
Lockheed Martin, the US defense giant, said the purchase would strengthen its hand in “advanced undersea warfare” at a time when wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to drive unprecedented demand for new weapons and military technology.
Ultra Maritime is part of Cobham Ultra, a group formed by Advent International, an American private company, when it merged Cobham, a British aerospace developer, with domestic rival Ultra Electronics four years ago. Advent paid £4 billion to Cobham in 2019 and another £2.6 billion to Ultra in 2022. Both deals were controversial given the companies’ importance to national security, and each required government approval under the UK’s foreign investment screening regime. The deal is the latest in a long line of foreign private equity investments in British companies that have reshaped the UK industrial landscape over the past decade.
Ultra Maritime specializes in undersea military technology, including sonobuoys, which detect submarines, and torpedo tubes that use sonar to track targets. The company, which maintains factories and offices in London, Buckinghamshire and Dorset, won a contract this year to supply its underwater acoustic decoys, designed to protect ships and submarines from torpedoes, to the US Navy. The Royal Navy is also among its main customers.
Lockheed Martin will fold Ultra Maritime into its rotary and mission systems (RMS) business, which reported revenue of $17.3 billion last year and employs 35,000 people worldwide. Lockheed itself has 1,700 employees in the UK across around 20 sites, including operations in Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Glasgow.
“Submarine superiority belongs to those who move faster and work better together,” said Stephanie Hill, president of Lockheed’s RMS division, announcing the deal. “By joining forces with Ultra Maritime, we are accelerating our commitment to bringing the most advanced submarine and anti-submarine warfare capabilities to our US and our allies around the world.”
Shonnel Malani, managing partner at Advent, said Ultra has become a “stronger, more established partner in the joint naval fleet” under the ownership of the private equity firm, with “enhanced performance, greater industrial capabilities and next-generation autonomous solutions that position it well for future warfare”.
Advent is understood to have invested around £127 million in Ultra Maritime over the past three years to speed up production. The business turned over £370 million by 2023 but is on track to bring in close to £587 million this year, the Financial Times reported last week.
The defense industry has been a clear beneficiary of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as President Trump’s demands that NATO members, the UK included, significantly increase their defense budgets, a change that has prompted Britain to increase its domestic arms production. In response, contractors have rushed to expand their product, and industry analysts say Lockheed’s Ultra Maritime move is part of that trend. Whether the merger wave brings lasting economic benefits to the UK, however, remains an open question.
