The U.S. Navy is moving swiftly to integrate and deploy unmanned surface vessels, with three USV divisions slated to be created next week and two medium USVs to be operating under fleet control this year.
Capt. Garrett Miller, the commodore of Surface Development Group One, made the announcements Wednesday at the Surface Navy Association’s 38th National Symposium.
“My command is really focused on operationalizing USVs for the fleet. We’re driving that really hard,” Miller said. He added that working with fully autonomous vessels requires a “completely different mindset.”
Miller confirmed to Defense News that three early command USV divisions will be formed, with assumption of command set to take place next week in San Diego.
Miller said that the service’s long-anticipated Seahawk and Sea Hunter medium USVs will no longer be experimental and will be deployed this year, telling Defense News that the Seahawk will become part of a carrier strike group. The deployments will take place beginning in the next month.
The Seahawk and Sea Hunter are the Navy’s first medium autonomous USVs, and are both nearly 135 feet long. They are primed for surveillance, equipped to send data to manned ships to aid in anti-submarine warfare and to increase reconnaissance capabilities. They were previously used in fleet exercises in 2022 and 2023.
Miller said that the Navy grew the number of small USVs it had in the force from four to hundreds within 2025 alone, and has since established a warfare officer career path for unmanned systems.
He added that the Navy will continue to acquire USVs that have containerized payloads, which could deliver a variety of kinetic effects.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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