U.S. Navy Refuels Seahawk USV Drone from Destroyer to Extend Unmanned Missions Across the Pacific.

The U.S. Navy used USS Chafee to refuel the Seahawk medium-displacement USV at sea, demonstrating a method to keep unmanned vessels with deployed formations without returning to shore. The trial shows how the Navy is adapting combat and logistics procedures to integrate unmanned platforms into routine fleet operations.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Chafee refueled the Seahawk Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vessel in the Pacific, testing a procedure intended to keep unmanned platforms attached to deployed naval formations for longer periods. The evolution reflects a broader effort to adapt existing warships, crews, and support procedures to sustained USV operations alongside conventional combatants, to extend time on station, reduce dependence on shore-based support, and integrate unmanned vessels more closely into fleet-level missions.

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The U.S. Navy’s Seahawk unmanned surface vessel conducts an at-sea refueling with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) on September 11, 2026, as the service develops procedures to sustain unmanned platforms during extended fleet operations. (Picture source: US DoD)

That process has accelerated during 2026. Seahawk has operated with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, while its sister vessel Sea Hunter participated in RIMPAC 2026 and autonomously covered more than 2,000 nautical miles between Pearl Harbor and San Diego. According to Leidos, Seahawk has been integrated into the strike group’s communications, command-and-control, and operational framework, using autonomous navigation and perception, collision avoidance, alternative communications paths, and waypoint navigation in GPS-denied conditions. The vessel is therefore no longer being assessed only as an isolated technology demonstrator. It is increasingly being inserted into the operational architecture used by deployed naval forces.

According to images released by the U.S. Department of Defense on September 21, the September 11 evolution shows sailors aboard USS Chafee handling lines during the refueling operation. A hose runs from the destroyer’s amidships refueling station toward Seahawk astern, with the transfer conducted through an astern arrangement rather than a conventional alongside replenishment. A comparable configuration had already been tested in April 2026, when fleet oiler USNS Guadalupe refueled Seahawk. The Navy is therefore examining whether unmanned vessels can receive fuel from both dedicated logistics ships and surface combatants already operating within a naval formation.

Seahawk belongs to the same 132-foot, roughly 40-meter trimaran family as Sea Hunter, derived from work conducted under DARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel program. Office of Naval Research data for the design lists twin diesel propulsion, a cruising speed of 12 knots, a maximum speed of 27 knots, and a range of about 10,000 nautical miles. These characteristics provide endurance across oceanic distances, but they also expose a basic limitation. Even a long-range unmanned vessel loses part of its operational utility if fuel requirements or maintenance repeatedly force it to return to a fixed base.

The September trial addresses that issue directly. Current procedures still require personnel to embark aboard Seahawk during refueling, limiting operations in rough weather and retaining a human dependency within a system intended for unmanned missions. DARPA’s No Manning Required Ship program is examining the next stage. In 2025, the USX-1 Defiant demonstrator conducted an at-sea fueling trial near Port Hueneme without personnel aboard the receiving vessel. The adaptation under way therefore concerns not only autonomous navigation, but also the support architecture required to sustain these platforms at sea, including refueling, maintenance and remote supervision.

This institutional shift is also visible through Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron One, which is responsible for introducing medium USVs, sensors, networks and mission payloads into fleet operations. The unit has integrated unmanned vessels with carrier strike groups during advanced training while developing tactics, maintenance procedures and operator expertise. Removing sailors from the hull does not eliminate the manpower requirement. Instead, part of that burden moves toward mission planning, command and control, data management, communications, and logistics.

The objective is a more distributed surface force. Medium USVs can extend maritime domain awareness beyond the sensor horizon of individual destroyers, maintain surveillance over assigned sectors, and provide additional nodes within a wider command network. A carrier strike group could distribute some sensing tasks across more platforms without assigning a destroyer or frigate to every surveillance requirement. Unmanned vessels could also operate in areas where commanders may be reluctant to expose high-value crewed warships. Refueling from destroyers or oilers would increase their time on station and reduce dependence on shore infrastructure, although communications resilience, maintenance, and fully autonomous replenishment remain constraints.

For the United States, the broader issue is therefore turning autonomy into operational persistence. In the Indo-Pacific, at-sea refueling could allow a USV such as Seahawk to remain with a carrier strike group, extend surveillance over distant areas, and keep sensors forward without continuously assigning a crewed combatant to the task. The same logic applies in the Persian Gulf, where Task Force 59 has already integrated unmanned systems around the Strait of Hormuz and used them during maritime surveillance operations involving Iranian vessels. A platform able to remain deployed through replenishment at sea could maintain intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance coverage near a strait or sensitive shipping route, feed data into the fleet network, and reduce the exposure of crewed ships. The Seahawk trial therefore illustrates that the operational value of USVs depends not only on autonomous navigation, but on whether the U.S. Navy can command, maintain, and refuel them far from established bases.

Written By Erwan Halna du Fretay - Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Erwan Halna du Fretay holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and has experience studying conflicts and global arms transfers. His research interests include security and strategic studies, particularly the dynamics of the defense industry, the evolution of military technologies, and the strategic transformation of armed forces.