The U.S. Navy is fully committed to autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) and plans to make half of its surface fleet unmanned by 2045. In 2025, the U.S. Navy unveiled a 180-foot-long autonomous warship called the USX-1 Defiant. In February 2026, its new Lightfish drone took to the high seas. The unmanned solar-powered Lightfish is being built by Seasats, a private company based in San Diego, California.
Seasat’s Lightfish is a 305-pound drone designed for general-purpose activities such as surveying, research, and security patrols. The U.S. Navy will use it to perform its mission of continuously gathering intelligence through surveillance and reconnaissance along coastlines, ports and even on the high seas. It has a top speed of 5 knots (5.75 mph) and can perform a wide range of maritime domain awareness missions, including port and coastal security, drug trafficking, illegal fishing and other threats.
Measuring just 11.4 feet by 3.4 feet, Lightfish can survive at sea for up to 6 months or 8,000 nautical miles without human intervention. It has a payload of 66 pounds and can be deployed instantly by one or two people. Plus, it can easily be hauled in the back of a truck or placed on almost any aircraft. Lightfish joins other maritime drones, including an unmanned underwater drone tested by the German Navy in 2025.
Read more: The 10 largest navies in the world, ranked by self-reported total naval assets
Specifications of light fish
Seasats Lightfish drone side view at sea – Seasats
Lightfish is equipped with an array of high-tech equipment (including collision avoidance, onboard artificial intelligence and GPS-denied navigation), five high-definition cameras and redundant communications systems including LTE, Iridium SBD, Iridium Certus and Starlink. The drone’s solar power system has a supplemental built-in methanol fuel cell that can provide 11 or 28kWh of power. The ASV features an electric Torqeedo 1103 with a weedless propeller equivalent to a 3 HP outboard engine. In addition, its weighted keel allows it to adjust itself in sea state 6 (wave heights up to 20 feet).
The Lightfish is intended strictly for surveillance and reconnaissance, unlike other privately built USVs such as Cardona Marine Group, Inc.’s Sea-Predator-7, which are equipped with an array of munitions to inflict lethal damage. The drone’s modular construction allows for easier maintenance and better customization, and most payloads can be replaced in minutes. With such a technologically advanced device, one might think it would require an expert to operate it. Not so. Seasats claims its browser-based control allows anyone to learn to navigate the ASV in five days.
Seasats’ other two ASVs are Quickfish and Heavyfish. The former has a top speed of over 35 knots (40.28 mph), making it ideal for rapid response tactical operations. But it can only last a month without intervention, and its 1,450-pound weight (and 450-pound payload) requires a trailer to move and launch. The Heavy Fish weighs 9,000 pounds (with a payload of 1,000 pounds) and requires a larger vehicle to move and a crane to get into the water. It can also last six months at sea and has a top speed of 12 knots (13.81 mph).
Lightfish has proven its long-range capabilities
Two people ride in an inflatable boat to launch the Lightfish drone at sea – U.S. Sixth Fleet
In June 2024, a Lightfish drone flew approximately 2,500 miles from San Diego to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. The 73-day journey was so successful that the team decided to send it to Japan, but it was unavailable due to a typhoon along the way. The culprit was an improperly sealed vent cover, which allowed water to enter the hull.
Lightfish ran the same test a second time to prove itself, also starting at the company’s headquarters in San Diego. After a brief stop in Hawaii for a demonstration, it continued past Wake Island and Guam, and participated in another demonstration in Okinawa. It finally arrived in Japan on July 30, 2025. It took 150 days and spanned 7,500 miles, a successful trans-Pacific voyage.
In early February 2026, the U.S. Sixth Fleet—specifically Commander’s Task Force (CTF) 66—successfully tested Lanternfish during Exercise Scimitar Express 2026 in the Western Indian Ocean. It was launched from the Seychelles Navy’s SCG auxiliary ship Saya De Malha (A605). Combined with upcoming drones like Lockheed Martin’s Lamprey multi-mission autonomous underwater vehicle, Lightfish could make the oceans safer for the United States and its allies.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.