Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao confirmed on October 14, 2026, that the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group has deployed with a medium unmanned surface vessel, the first time a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group has integrated an ocean-going autonomous ship. The group left San Diego on September 27 under Rear Admiral Marcos Jasso, bound for the Western Pacific ahead of a planned Middle East deployment.
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The vessel was later identified in reporting as the Leidos Seahawk, a trimaran roughly 41 to 42 meters long. The Navy has been careful about the details: its public statements describe the vessel by class, not by name, and the identification as the Seahawk comes from later reporting. That distinction shapes everything below, because the length, displacement and history belong to the Seahawk as reported, while the Navy’s own confirmation covers the deployment and the claim of a first.
The Seahawk: 41 meters and 145 long tons
Army Recognition, which carried the Navy confirmation, lists the Seahawk’s length at 41.1 to 42 meters and its displacement at 145 long tons, or 147.3 metric tonnes. Its report on the first deployment describes a composite trimaran hull with two outriggers, rated to operate in Sea State 5 and survive Sea State 7, with waves up to 6.1 meters. The outlet also says verified top speed, fuel consumption and deployment endurance remain unquantified, which is a notable gap for a vessel expected to keep pace with a carrier group.
The ship was built by Leidos under a $35.5 million contract awarded in December 2017 and delivered on April 7, 2021. It entered the operational fleet in April 2026 and took part in the RIMPAC 2026 exercise before joining the carrier group.
What the Navy said and did not say
The public record from the Navy side is thinner than the strike group’s billing suggests. Cao did not name the Seahawk. According to DefenseScoop’s account, he described the Theodore Roosevelt group as “the first carrier strike group to ever deploy with a large-size unmanned surface vessel,” while unnamed Navy spokespersons did not identify the model and a Leidos source referred questions to the Navy. The Seahawk is classed as a medium vessel, so the wording is loose, but the claim of a first came from the Navy’s own civilian leader.
At a U.S. Army conference, Cao had made the case for such ships, saying “Imagine having more guns out there,” as Maritime Executive reported. No uniformed officer has publicly described the Seahawk’s role within the group in the sources reviewed here. The closest officer quote concerns the wider fleet: Captain Garrett Miller, commander of Surface Development Group One, said at the WEST 2026 conference that the Navy has “over 30 Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels just in the Indo-Pacific,” as noted by USNI News.
Miller was speaking about unmanned surface vessels in general, not about the Theodore Roosevelt deployment, so his figure shows the scale of the program rather than the mission of this one ship.
From Sea Hunter to Seahawk
The Seahawk descends from Sea Hunter, the Leidos-led prototype christened on April 7, 2016, which came out of DARPA’s ACTUV program launched in 2010 to track diesel-electric submarines. Sea Hunter reached 27 knots, cruised at 12 knots, was designed with a reference range of 10,000 nautical miles, and completed an autonomous transit of more than 2,000 nautical miles between Pearl Harbor and San Diego. Maritime Executive notes that the Seahawk prototype dates to 2017, when the Navy awarded Leidos a contract to upgrade the Sea Hunter design while keeping the trimaran hull form.
Fuel is the obvious constraint for an uncrewed escort. The Seahawk carries about 53,000 liters, or roughly 39.8 tonnes of diesel. In April 2026 the fleet oiler USNS Guadalupe refueled it off Southern California, and on September 11 the destroyer USS Chafee conducted a refueling trial in the Pacific. Both used a hose transfer with personnel temporarily boarding the vessel, which shows compatibility with fleet replenishment but not fully autonomous refueling. The distinction matters for a group that plans to cross the Western Pacific and then possibly reach the Middle East, since a crewless escort that cannot refuel itself depends on the same oilers and boarding parties as every crewed ship beside it.
The deployment so far
On October 16 the Theodore Roosevelt, the cruiser USS Chosin and the destroyer USS Decatur arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, ahead of Exercise Keen Sword 2027. The reports reviewed here do not say whether the Seahawk entered port with them, and Inside Defense carried a separate item headed Seahawk USV deployed alongside Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, Cao confirms.
The claim of a first rests on the Navy’s confirmation, and Army Recognition presented it without independent verification. Independent verification of the Seahawk’s operating role, and any officer-level description of how the group uses it, remains to come.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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