Lockheed Martin has unveiled a new autonomous drone, the Vectis, created by its secretive Skunk Works advanced products division, that will assist the F-22 and F-35 aircraft with reconnaissance.
Lockheed Martin has unveiled a new autonomous drone, the Vectis, created by its secretive Skunk Works advanced products division, that will assist the F-22 and F-35 aircraft with reconnaissance.
Skunk Works president O.J. Sanchez said Vectis will begin flying in two years. He did not specify what the drone’s cost might be.
«Whether you call them drones, autonomous collaborative platforms or collaborative combat aircraft, we’ve been developing and using them since the early 1960s,» he said .
According to Sanchez, the Vectis is stealthy, reusable and can take off from a runway. It is designed for operations in the Indo-Pacific region, the Middle East and Europe and is compatible with other aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35. The drone will be able to be quickly upgraded and customized to individual needs.
Survivable. Lethal. Autonomous.
— Lockheed Martin (@LockheedMartin) September 21, 2025
Lockheed Martin Vectis™ is here. 🦨
This cutting-edge uncrewed aircraft integrates with 5th and next-gen platforms and provides unparalleled mission survivability. pic.twitter.com/Y7IgoUqstF
He declined to say what engine the Vectis will be equipped with, but said the drone would be able to «keep up» with fifth-generation fighters. The Vectis' characteristics and communications capabilities are «compatible with fifth- and next-generation aircraft,» Sanchez added.
«We conducted a classified analysis of teamwork and manned and unmanned operations by combining the F-22 and F-35 with Vectis, and the results are impressive,» said the head of Skunk Works.
Sanchez added that Vectis integrates not only with Lockheed Martin systems and can connect to any other platform.
Skunk Works is the official name for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly known as Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for the development of a number of aircraft, secret research programs, and exotic aircraft platforms.
The unit got its name after a curious incident. In the early 1960s, Lockheed designers were fascinated by a comic strip printed on the back page of a weekly newspaper about a moonshiner and a secret moonshine brewed in the forest thickets, including from skunks.
The enthusiasm was so strong that the workers began to be called «skunks» in private, and the expression «skunk works» reached the government when a ministry representative was confused by the answer that «skunk works» was on the line.
The term skunk works is now widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization that has a high degree of autonomy and is not constrained by bureaucracy, and whose task is to work on cutting-edge or secret projects.
