RIMPAC's Next Evolution

Just weeks ago, a 24-foot autonomous boat made history near the Strait of Hormuz. When an Iranian drone downed a U.S. Army Apache helicopter over hostile waters, a Corsair unmanned surface vessel operated by the Navy’s Task Force 59 located the pilots, retrieved them from the water, and transported them to safety. The entire operation took roughly two hours and both soldiers survived. It was the first time an autonomous boat rescued American personnel in a combat zone. It will not be the last.

RIMPAC has always been about more than hardware. For over five decades it has been the place where nations learn how to operate together by building shared protocols, compatible command structures, and the mutual trust that determines whether a coalition functions under pressure or comes apart.

Command of this year’s exercise reflects that seriousness. The U.S. leads as commander, with Chile as deputy, Japan as vice commander, South Korea commanding the maritime component, and Canada leading the air component. Notably, the Philippines is sending both a warship and a coast guard vessel—the first foreign coast guard to participate in RIMPAC’s 55-year history. In the gray zone where China operates most aggressively, coast guards are often the first institutions at the scene, and the inclusion of foreign coast guards should become a permanent fixture, not a one-time milestone at this exercise.

But the most important signal at this year’s RIMPAC may not come from the manned fleet at all.

For the past two iterations, autonomous systems have featured prominently. At RIMPAC 2022, four unmanned surface vessels—Sea Hunter, Seahawk, Nomad, and Ranger—operated alongside manned combatants, gathering intelligence and extending the fleet’s reach without putting sailors at risk. At RIMPAC 2024, the U.S. and South Korean navies conducted a live-fire exercise using a Common Unmanned Surface Vessel, hitting targets with 100% accuracy. Autonomous aerial systems logged nearly 100 flight hours in maritime surveillance. The Navy’s Project Overmatch continued stitching together a tactical network connecting manned platforms, unmanned systems, and partner nations.

The feedback from fleet commanders at these exercises has been telling. After RIMPAC 2022, Navy program officials reported that the fleet was less concerned about whether autonomous systems were safe to operate near other ships but were more curious about what payloads they carried and how to control multiple vessels from a single console.

Autonomous systems are no longer a curiosity in the experimental lane, and according to reporting from the Undersea Defense Technology conference in April, the Navy will test remotely firing a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile from a Saildrone Surveyor robotic boat at this year’s exercise.

That progress now demands two things from RIMPAC 2026.

First, the exercise should treat autonomous integration as a coalition challenge, not just a U.S. one. Can partner nations securely receive data feeds from American unmanned platforms? Can their command systems interface with AI-enabled maritime domain awareness tools? Can a South Korean or Australian officer act on information generated by a U.S. unmanned surface vessel in near-real time? These are the interoperability questions that matter for the next contingency, and they are harder to answer than whether ships can sail in formation.

Second, the coalition needs to confront the problem previous RIMPACs have identified but not solved: data. Not just collecting it but managing it. What the coalition lacks is a persistent operational layer that does for maritime coalition management what modern workflow platforms do for complex organizations: ingest feeds from unmanned platforms across multiple nations, synthesize them into a shared picture, assign and track tasks, surface gaps, and flag what needs a decision or action, and the key lessons learned and next steps.

Some of these pieces exist with AI-driven maritime domain awareness and sensor orchestration tools. At UNITAS 2025, advanced AI and orchestration technologies were deployed across 26 partner nations integrating unmanned vehicles to produce a unified common operating picture. Ukraine’s experience with integrated drone management systems showed what a persistent, AI-enabled operational layer looks like under real pressure.

No such system has reportedly stress-tested what is required across a coalition the size of RIMPAC; and building the data standards, classification frameworks, and interface agreements to make it work across 31 nations is a hard but not unachievable problem.

The ships, aircraft, and personnel gathering in Hawaii this month and next remain the foundation of deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2026 will continue to be where partners learn to build it together and take integration to next level.

Kimberly Lehn is the Executive Director and Head of National Security and Defense at the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum International and runs the Honolulu Defense Forum, an event that seeks to facilitate dialogue and solutions between a wide range of actors from the public and private sectors to bolster U.S. and allied deterrence and readiness in an increasingly contested security environment. For more information see: www.honoluludefenseforum.com

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the U.S. Government.  Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.

image: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Kongo-class guided missile destroyer JS Kongo (DDG 173), center, participates in a group sail with ships from multiple nations in preparation for Exercise Rim of the Pacific 26 in the Pacific Ocean, June 19, 2026. Thirty-one nations, more than 30 surface ships, 5 submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 206 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC in and around the Hawaiian Islands, June 24 to July 31. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 26 is the 30th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force photo by Yusuke Tanaka)