Leidos Seahawk

DESCRIPTION

Seahawk is Leidos' second medium-displacement unmanned surface vessel and the improved successor to Sea Hunter — Leidos states its design follows an evaluation of "over 300 lessons learned from Sea Hunter", with upgrades to the electrical systems, the payload mounting and the operator control station. It is a composite trimaran displacing 145 long tons fully loaded, carrying 14,000 gallons of fuel for its twin diesel engines, which is what gives the type its months-long endurance. Leidos delivered it to the US Navy on 7 April 2021, after which it joined Surface Development Squadron One. Seahawk has since operated at the sharp end rather than as an experiment: it has worked with the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, and in 2023 crossed the Pacific with Sea Hunter, Ranger and Mariner for Integrated Battle Problem 23.2, calling at western Pacific ports and reaching Sydney Harbour. It runs LAVA, the Leidos Autonomous Vessel Architecture, which covers navigation, obstacle avoidance and mission execution without human intervention. Leidos publishes no length, beam, speed or range for Seahawk. Leidos holds a Naval Sea Systems Command task order to manage, operate and maintain the Navy's Overlord and medium unmanned surface vessels, worth up to approximately 95 million US dollars with all options, and states it has delivered four operational medium USVs to the fleet: Ranger, Mariner, Sea Hunter and Seahawk.

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