Deployment

Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a legacy US defense and IT prime, designs and builds the Sea Hunter-class Medium Displacement Uncrewed Surface Vessel, recorded in the maritime form factor as the legacy-prime surface-naval-autonomy entry, the surface-tier analog to HII's REMUS legacy-prime subsea program competing against new-defense entrants such as Anduril and Saronic. The Sea Hunter is a 132-foot trimaran of roughly 135 to 145 long tons with about a 10,000-nautical-mile range and 30-to-90-day endurance, originating in DARPA's Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel program, which awarded Leidos a $59 million design-and-build contract in 2012, with the vessel christened on April 7, 2016 and transferred from DARPA to the Office of Naval Research on February 1, 2018; a second vessel, Seahawk, was built under a $35.5 million ONR contract and delivered on April 7, 2021 incorporating more than 300 lessons learned. The registry records it at production, operational maturity: the US Navy is moving Sea Hunter and Seahawk from experimental to operational status in fiscal 2026, with the commander of Surface Development Squadron One stating on January 15, 2026 that they will be under fleet control and one vessel, reported to be Seahawk, set to deploy with a carrier strike group in 2026. A correction is load-bearing: there is no distinct larger-displacement Sea Hunter II successor, since Sea Hunter II is an informal name for Seahawk, the same-class second vessel, so the registry treats them as two vessels of one MDUSV class rather than implying a heavier successor. Navy procurement targets of 11 vessels by 2027 and more than 30 by 2030 are stated force-structure targets rather than delivered inventory and are cap-flagged as projections, and the carrier-strike-group vessel identity is press attribution the Navy did not officially confirm.

Sea Hunter (and Seahawk) by Leidos · Catalog entry · 1 source · not yet field-verified