Buoyed in the Pacific, small sea vessels have traveled autonomously from San Diego shores to locate Chinese ghost fleets in Taiwanese waters. These small skiffs, created by San Diego-based startup Seasats,

A fleet of autonomous vessels backed by the US Navy has been launched off California to hunt down Chinese ghost ships. San Diego startup Seasats crafted the special boats to perform intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions at sea without a human operator onboard.

The U.S. Navy's top drone task force in the Middle East only started operating the Corsair uncrewed surface vessels in March.

The Defense Department is using autonomous surface vessels to patrol the waters of the Rio Grande to detect drug smugglers and deter illegal crossings.