NEW YORK ¨C During a U.S. naval test off the California coast last month, which was designed to showcase the Pentagon¡¯s top autonomous drone boats, one vessel stalled unexpectedly.
As officials scrambled to fix a software glitch, another drone vessel smashed into the idling boat¡¯s starboard side, vaulted over the deck, and crashed back into the water ¡ª an incident captured in videos.
The previously unreported episode, which involved two vessels built by U.S. defense tech rivals Saronic and BlackSea Technologies, is one of a series of recent setbacks in the Pentagon¡¯s push to build a fleet of autonomous vessels, according to a dozen people familiar with the program.
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