RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRisk / U.S. Navy / 2025-06-23
other · malfunction

Navy unmanned surface vessel malfunctions during tow test, capsizes support boat

S3 · 06/23
2025 · ~3:28pm local · U.S. Navy · Ventura, CA, USA

Record

CompanyU.S. Navy
Categoryother
Typemalfunction
Date06/23
2025
Time of day~3:28pm local
LocationVentura, CA, USA · Channel Islands Harbor
SeverityS3 (recall, enforcement, or fleet-wide fault)
Scale1 unmanned surface vessel, 1 support boat capsized
Confidencehigh
VerificationYes - adversarially checked against the cited source
SourceDefenseScoop

What happened

AIID Incident 1561. During a Navy unmanned-surface-vessel test near Naval Base Ventura County, the unmanned craft received an inadvertent command while under tow, went into autonomous mode, circled the tug and capsized the manned support boat; the captain declined medical attention.

U.S. Navy record context

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