Lockheed Buys Ultra Maritime for $3.45B, Katalyst's Link Chases NASA Swift, Voyager Draws $250M Facility

Lockheed Martin signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ultra Maritime from Advent for $3.45 billion, folding the sonar, sonobuoy, torpedo-defense and autonomous maritime sensing portfolio into its Rotary and Mission Systems business. Advent said it committed roughly $170 million into the company after its 2022 carve-out from Cobham Ultra and grew annual revenue by about 17%, and the deal now hands a scaled, export-heavy ASW franchise to a prime that has been rebuilding a naval story around undersea warfare demand.

In orbit, Katalyst Space's roughly half-ton Link servicer separated from Northrop Grumman's Pegasus XL over the Pacific on July 3 after an air-launch from the Stargazer L-1011, marking the first Pegasus flight since 2021 and the first commercial attempt to grapple an uncrewed government satellite not designed for servicing. NASA confirmed ground contact, and Katalyst will spend the next several weeks checking out propulsion, sensors and navigation before approaching the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, whose orbit has been decaying under increased solar activity. The mission was built in roughly nine months under a $30 million contract awarded last September.

On the capital side, Voyager Technologies closed an upsized $250 million credit facility led by J.P. Morgan, with CFO Phil De Sousa framing the liquidity as support for demand across the company's space, defense and national security portfolio. On the launch front, SpaceX deployed 81 rideshare payloads on Transporter-17 from Vandenberg at 12:12 a.m. PDT on booster B1097's 11th flight, while Thales agreed to buy 35.5% of French maritime drone maker Exail Technologies from the Gorgé family ahead of a mandatory tender at about €134 per share valuing Exail near €3.9 billion.