Sealartec, an Israel-based maritime technology company, has won a contract from the United States Coast Guard to conduct trials of an autonomous launch and recovery system, MarineLink Maritime News reported on 12 November 2026.
The company’s technology, which was previously demonstrated aboard the U.S. Navy’s Stiletto test platform, will be moved into an operational evaluation phase aboard a Legend-class National Security Cutter, according to the report.
From test platform to cutter
The transition from demonstration on the Stiletto to evaluation on a Legend-class cutter represents a deliberate shift from experimental trials to service-level appraisal, allowing the system to be observed in the conditions and routines of an operational Coast Guard unit.
Bringing the system aboard a cutter will allow assessment of how the autonomous launch and recovery system integrates with shipboard workflows, crew interfaces and the patrol tasks typical of national security cutters.
Autonomous LARS in focus
Autonomous launch and recovery systems aim to handle the deployment and retrieval of small craft and unmanned vehicles with minimal manual intervention, and the upcoming evaluation will focus on how the technology performs under the demands of cutter operations.
The move to a Legend-class cutter will place the system in a platform type that routinely undertakes extended at-sea missions, offering a broader range of operational conditions for testing than a dedicated test vessel.
Sealartec’s award of the USCG contract was described in the MarineLink item published on 12 November 2026, which noted the prior demonstration aboard the Navy’s Stiletto test platform and the planned advancement to operational evaluation aboard the cutter.
The evaluation aboard a Coast Guard cutter is likely to produce practical data on reliability, maintainability and the operational impact of automated handling during routine sorties, although the report did not supply further technical details or a timeline for the trials.
This step will add to a growing pattern of maritime authorities and navies seeking to move proven concepts from controlled demonstration environments into the service fleets where endurance, interoperability and human factors can be judged in real missions.
The MarineLink report forms the basis of this account and sets the date of the announcement as 12 November 2026; the operational evaluation aboard a Legend-class National Security Cutter is the next documented stage for Sealartec’s autonomous launch and recovery technology.