Lockheed carries out missile launches directly from a drone boat - will the US Navy be next?

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers fire standard missile 2 (SM-2) .

• Saildrone announced on 20th August that its Surveyor Unmanned Surface Vehicle fired two Lockheed JAGM missiles off Hawaii during RIMPAC 2026, the first missile launch from an unmanned USV
• Fire control ran through the Navy's remotely operated ARES system with a carrier strike group, so the boat sailed itself, but the decision to deploy the weapons remained a strictly human one for now
• The demonstration was coordinated by the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, under the sponsorship of the US Navy's Fleet Experimentation Program

Lockheed Martin announced on August 20 that a Saildrone Surveyor-class unmanned surface vessel, fitted with a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) dual launcher, launched two JAGM rounds during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, using targeting data for a simulated high-speed surface craft.