A U.S. Navy Corsair autonomous surface vessel operated by Task Force 59 rescued two U.S. Army aviators from waters off the coast of Oman on June 8, following the loss of their AH-64 Apache helicopter during a patrol of regional waters — the first confirmed personnel recovery conducted by an unmanned surface vessel in U.S. military history.
According to U.S. Central Command, the two crew members were rescued at 7:33 p.m. ET on June 8 within approximately two hours and are in stable condition.
“The drone picked them up and transported them to another location on the water where they were hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport,” said Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson. Hawkins said the vessel was chosen for the mission due to its proximity and capability.
The rescue was carried out under the operational lead of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division, with Task Force 59 — the Navy’s dedicated unit for integrating unmanned systems and AI into maritime operations — providing support.
The Corsair, unveiled in October 2024, is 24 feet long, capable of carrying 1,000 pounds over 1,000 nautical miles, and can exceed 35 knots. The Navy inked a $392 million production contract with Saronic in December 2024. Task Force 59 began fielding the vessels in theater in late March, according to CENTCOM.
The Austin-based company has moved rapidly up the defense capital stack since the Corsair contract. In March 2026, Saronic closed a $1.75 billion Series D round led by Kleiner Perkins, lifting its valuation to $9.25 billion from $4 billion, with plans to expand production across Louisiana and Texas facilities and a new Port Alpha shipyard, targeting more than 20 vessels annually by 2027.
Corsair logged more than 79,000 nautical miles and over 15,000 hours of operations in 2025, with testing conducted six days a week across multiple U.S. coastal sites.
Task Force 59 was established in 2021 to experiment with unmanned technology and artificial intelligence and fold them into naval operations. The June 8 recovery marks its most consequential operational validation to date — and a proof-of-concept with direct implications for distributed maritime search and rescue, particularly in contested or access-denied environments.
