US Navy Sinks Ex-USS Peleliu at RIMPAC With Its First Kamikaze Sea Drone Strike

The US Navy destroyed the decommissioned amphibious assault ship ex-USS Peleliu (LHA-5) with an uncrewed attack boat on 17 July 2026, the first time the service has used a kamikaze sea drone against a large warship in a live-fire event. The strike took place during the sinking exercise program run as part of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026 off Hawaii.

Two Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft from Unmanned Surface Vessel Division 32 were present, though only one carried out the destructive end-to-end attack, according to The War Zone. Video recorded by the observing craft shows the drone boat running past holes already torn in the hull by Harpoon, Spike and LRASM missiles before detonating at the waterline. The division's commanding officer said the unit was "honored" to execute the Navy's first such strike at the exercise.

The US Navy said ships and aircraft sank Peleliu in roughly 15,000 feet of water more than 50 nautical miles north of Kauai. The same series of sinking exercises claimed the decommissioned cruiser ex-USS Mobile Bay, which took its final blow from a Mk 48 torpedo fired by the Canadian submarine HMCS Corner Brook. Units from Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Spain also took part in targeting and live firing.

The GARC is a small unmanned surface vessel built by BlackSea Technologies, about 4.8 m long and 2.2 tonnes at full load, with a range of roughly 680 nautical miles. A removable center panel allows payloads to be swapped between missions; The War Zone puts the payload capacity at 1,000 pounds and notes that the warhead weight used at RIMPAC has not been disclosed. Anduril's Lattice autonomy software directed the craft during the run.

USVDIV-32, stood up earlier in 2026, is the Navy's first dedicated uncrewed surface attack unit and is manned in part by the newly created Robotics Warfare Specialist rating. It had previously appeared at BALTOPS 2026 and UNITAS 2025 in counter-drone training roles. The RIMPAC strike came five days after the first acknowledged combat use of American kamikaze sea drones, when three Saronic Corsair craft struck Iranian targets at Bandar Abbas on 12 July.

Peleliu was the fifth and last ship of the LHA-1 Tarawa class, a 254 m, 39,967-tonne design introduced in 1976 and built in five units. She entered service in 1980, was decommissioned at San Diego on 31 March 2015 and had since been held in the inactive reserve at Pearl Harbor, where she served as a damage-control test platform during the REPTX exercise in April 2026. The United States, which tops the global military power ranking, has used sinking exercises for decades to test weapons against realistic full-size targets.

The Navy has not said when the next GARC live-fire event will take place, nor whether the craft will move from test article to a standing strike option. The growth of USVDIV-32 and the creation of a dedicated enlisted rating suggest the service intends to keep expanding the capability.