The Guantanamo Naval Base has become the primary training and support site for missions of the newly established SAWC Command, a military structure that integrates unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced communications to project power in Latin America and the Caribbean, as announced by the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) on Friday.
The SOUTHCOM Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC) was established on April 21, 2026, by order of General Francis L. Donovan, commander of SOUTHCOM, with the stated aim of creating a "decisional and operational advantage" in the Western Hemisphere.
Its installation in the U.S. enclave on Cuban territory is not coincidental: it occurs amidst an escalation of tensions between Washington and Havana regarding the threat of drones.
The official images from SOUTHCOM highlight the deployment of surface-autonomous vehicles of the Corsair type, a maritime drone manufactured by Saronic, a naval drone company based in Texas.
According to information gathered by Forbes/Nautik, this vessel measures 7.3 meters in length, can transport up to 450 kilograms, and reaches speeds exceeding 35 knots, which is approximately 65 kilometers per hour.
The Corsair is roughly the size of a small flat-deck fishing boat and can accommodate three to four people. It is equipped with a 360-degree camera, long-range navigation radar, and electronic sensors capable of intercepting communications for intelligence purposes, according to specialists consulted by the outlet.
Although it is typically used for surveillance and mine detection, the system demonstrated its versatility in June, when it was utilized by U.S. forces to rescue two crew members from a downed Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.
That operation marked the first known case of using an unmanned vessel in a search and rescue mission.
Now, the supervised deployment in Guantanamo by Donovan is part of a broader doctrine from the Pentagon accelerated by the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine and the conflicts in the Middle East.
In April 2026, SOUTHCOM and the Fourth Fleet had already conducted the FLEX2026 exercise in Key West, combining artificial intelligence, long-range drones, and unmanned maritime vehicles.
Weeks later, in June, Marines conducted air insertion exercises in Guantánamo as part of the campaign Operation Southern Spear.
The political background is equally relevant. In May 2026, according to research by Axios based on classified intelligence, Cuba is believed to have acquired over 300 military drones since 2023, allegedly from Russia and Iran, and the regime reportedly discussed internally possible uses against the Guantanamo base itself, U.S. warships, and the city of Key West, Florida.
U.S. officials clarified that they did not consider a Cuban attack to be imminent, but the report triggered a series of warnings.
On June 10, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the base and directly warned the regime that it would be "reckless" to seek weapons capable of reaching Guantanamo or the continental United States. In July, President Donald Trump publicly stated that his administration was investigating whether Iran was storing Shahed drones in Cuba.
In this context, the United States Navy took the opportunity to sum up its philosophy in a post on the social network X: "The future does not wait, and neither do we. The Navy moves at the speed of combat, putting autonomous systems in the hands of sailors to test, adapt, and scale what works."
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