'A.I., Captain': The Robotic Navy Ship of the Future

The swells in the middle of the North Pacific were reaching nine feet when one of two engines on the diesel-powered U.S. naval ship called Sea Hunter shut down. About 1,500 nautical miles from its home base in San Diego, the 132-foot-long craft, which had been cruising at 10 knots, couldn't send a member of its crew to check out the problem--because it didn't have a crew. Sea Hunter's sleek, spiderlike silhouette, with a narrow hull and two outriggers, is a prototype of what could be a new class of autonomous warships for the U.S. Navy. Its artificial intelligence–based controls and navigation system, designed by Leidos Holdings, a defense contractor based in Reston, Va., were seven years in the making. And this maiden voyage--a more than 4,000-mile roundtrip to the giant Pearl Harbor naval station--was its first major proof of concept. Nothing like this had ever been attempted before.