A mysterious warship with no one aboard was recently seen in waters off of Washington state, being pushed by a tug boat. While it made onlookers curious, its identity has now been confirmed. The slender ship is a new medium-sized uncrewed surface vessel (USV) that has been designed to operate without any humans on board. The naval vessel has been named USX-1 Defiant and was seen going through the Saratoga Passage in Puget Sound, only a few miles from the US Navy’s Naval Air Station Whidby Island, according to The War Zone.

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The warship is like a drone and has been designed as part of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) programme. Private maritime and operations company Serco is the primary contractor for the Defiant.

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The War Zone reported that construction of the 180ft, 240-tonne unmanned vessel was completed last month after five years. Residents in Washington state were the first to spot the warship as it was being pushed by a tug boat through the Saratoga Passage.

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The Defiant has been developed as a cost-effective unmanned service vessel for the US Navy. Unmanned vessels are typically used for surveillance, reconnaissance, and to glean intelligence.

The Defiant will undergo in-water testing

According to DARPA, the Defiant will “undergo extensive in-water testing, both dockside and at sea” and will later depart for a multi-month at-sea demonstration.

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It will act as a testing model to learn how long such a vessel can operate autonomously without humans on board.

Part of US Navy’s "Hellscape" programme

American policymakers and combat commands have been calling for cost-effective USVs to help Taiwan. Notably, such drone ships can be used in the Taiwan Strait to protect the island nation against Chinese aggression. The US Navy’s "Hellscape" programme aims to create a battlefield with tens of thousands of unmanned ships, aircraft, and submarines across the West Pacific. Details of the same were given out by the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo last summer.

“By removing the human element from all ship design considerations, the program intends to demonstrate significant advantages, to include: size, cost, at-sea reliability, greater hydrodynamic efficiency, survivability to sea-state, and survivability to adversary actions through stealth considerations and tampering resistance," DARPA says on its website.

Photos of the Defiant show the warship still under covers, as it is partially covered in a tarp.

(With inputs from agencies)