Come See Us at Pier D2 on the Gaylord Waterfront

BlackSea Technologies Launches Chaser and Comet USVs at Sea-Air-Space 2026

BALTIMORE, April 20, 2026 — BlackSea Technologies will unveil two new small Unmanned Surface Vessels (sUSV), Chaser and Comet, at Sea-Air-Space 2026, the Navy League of the United States’ global maritime exposition, held April 19 to 22 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The event is widely recognized as the premier maritime exposition in the United States, bringing together defense industry leaders and senior military decision makers from around the world. Both new vessels will be displayed at the waterside exhibition pier.  

BlackSea's Commet USV on pier D2 at National Harbor.

BlackSea arrives at Sea-Air-Space with a growing position in the unmanned surface vessel market, built in part on the success of its Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC, a flagship system with over 350 delivered, operating at scale, with tens of thousands of operational hours across real world Navy deployments. 

“Sea-Air-Space is the right venue to introduce the next chapter of BlackSea’s unmanned maritime capability,” said Bob Pudney, president of BlackSea Technologies. “Chaser and Comet reflect our focus on giving operators scalable, mission ready platforms that can adapt quickly to evolving threats and mission demands. We are proud to launch them alongside a group of industry partners whose technology helps make these vessels possible.” 

Built for modular maritime operations, Chaser is an sUSV designed to expand payload capacity, range and mission flexibility while maintaining rapid deployability and ease of use (meeting the Navy requirement to fit in a 20’ shipping container). Chaser is built on a proven operational foundation with thousands of fleet hours, supports missions ranging from maritime domain awareness and distributed ISR to communications relay, surface operations support and contested logistics, and can swap most payloads within a few hours.  

Comet is BlackSea’s larger, high speed combat ready platform, designed to bridge the gap between small tactical USVs and larger unmanned combat craft. The 13.1 meter vessel can exceed 45 knots, carry a 10,000 pound payload including fuel, and support advanced payloads for missions including counter UAS, mine countermeasures, surface warfare, antisubmarine warfare, electronic warfare, maritime domain awareness and high value unit escort.  

The Chaser launch highlights BlackSea’s work with key mission partners, including Lockheed Martin for the JAGM launcher, Echodyne radars for maritime domain awareness and high-fidelity threat targeting, Current for perception camera systems, and EOS Defense Systems USA for the gun system. 

The Comet launch showcases contributions from Sierra Nevada Corp. with BRAWLR, Leonardo DRS RADA with the RPS-42 MHR array radar, Seakeeper for gyro stabilization, Volvo Penta for propulsion, and DECPT, for a unique signature management wrap designed to increase survivability. 

"BlackSea had been leading innovation of autonomous vessels for decades.  We built the first military uncrewed hydrofoil, USSV-HS in 2006, and the prototype for the Common USV, CUSV-001 in 2008," said Todd Greene, BlackSea's director of Advanced Technologies. "Today, we introduce Chaser an enhanced version of the first American-made USV, that was produced at scale and is being tested in combat.  We also are unveiling Comet, evolved from the robust and proven USSV-HTF we delivered in 2005; now capable of going faster, and carrying more mission payload than any other sUSV.” 

Together, the two vessels underscore BlackSea’s commitment to delivering scalable, mission configurable unmanned maritime capability for defense customers operating in contested environments. 

Sea-Air-Space attendees can view Chaser and Comet throughout the exhibition at the waterside pier and meet with the BlackSea Technologies team to learn more about the company’s expanding family of unmanned maritime systems. Additional information on BlackSea Technologies and its platforms is available at www.BlackSea.tech 

About BlackSea Technologies 
BlackSea Technologies is a premier naval technology firm enabling new asymmetric strategies so U.S. Naval and military forces can prevail over the next several decades in multi-dimensional conflicts.  We deliver innovative maritime systems and mission solutions to our nation’s warfighters from the ocean surface to the seabed.