Autonomous Ships Cross Two Milestones in a Single Month as China Completes First Unmanned Port Call and U.S. Navy Begins Building Crewless Warships
China's Zhi Fei completed a fully autonomous port call at Qingdao while the U.S. Navy's Liberty Class entered construction, as the IMO races to finalize global rules by 2030.
Overview
Autonomous shipping reached two distinct milestones in February and March 2026, signaling that crewless vessels are moving from experimental demonstrations to operational reality on both commercial and military fronts. In China, the smart container ship Zhi Fei completed the world’s first fully unmanned port call at Qingdao, executing every step from navigation to cargo handling without a single human on board. Days later in Louisiana, construction began on the U.S. Navy’s Liberty Class, a 190-foot autonomous warship designed to patrol the open ocean for up to three months with no crew.
The parallel developments, one civilian and one military, arrive as the International Maritime Organization works to finalize its non-mandatory code for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships by May 2026, with a binding global framework expected by 2030.
Zhi Fei Completes First End-to-End Unmanned Port Call
On February 21, the 300-TEU battery-electric container ship Zhi Fei sailed into Qingdao New Qianwan Container Terminal and completed what CGTN described as the “first full-process unmanned operation of a container vessel, covering navigation, berthing and cargo handling.” The vessel, whose name translates to “intelligent navigation,” executed the entire sequence without human intervention.
The operation began with autonomous navigation into the port, followed by a vacuum-based mooring system that secured the ship to the berth using suction pads in under 30 seconds, eliminating the need for traditional mooring lines or deck crew. Once berthed, domestically developed automation systems took over: an Automated Terminal Operating System (A-TOS) and Automated Equipment Control System (A-ECS) coordinated intelligent quay cranes and automated guided vehicles with what Splash247 reported as millisecond-level response times, loading and unloading containers with zero waiting time between operations.
Operated by Navigation Brilliance (BRINAV) in partnership with Shandong Port Group, the Zhi Fei entered commercial service in April 2022 and has since completed nearly 1,300 voyages connecting Qingdao with the ports of Dongjiakou and Rizhao. The ship operates in three modes: manual, remote-control, and fully autonomous, with a shore-based control center capable of system override at any time. According to Container News, the vessel runs with 30 percent fewer crew members compared to a conventional feeder ship of the same class.
While the February 21 demonstration was the first time every link in the chain, from open-water navigation through cargo discharge, ran without humans, the Zhi Fei had been building toward this milestone through years of incremental testing on its regular commercial routes.
U.S. Navy’s Liberty Class Enters Construction
On the military side, Blue Water Autonomy began construction of the first Liberty Class autonomous surface vessel at Conrad Shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana, in March 2026, according to New Atlas. The 190-foot (58-meter) ship is designed to operate for up to three months at sea with no crew aboard, carrying out attack and logistics missions across an operational range of 10,000 nautical miles.
The Liberty Class is built on the proven Damen Stan Patrol 6009 hull, featuring a distinctive axe bow that slices through waves rather than riding over them, reducing slamming forces and improving stability in rough seas. At 770 tonnes displacement and a top speed of 25 knots, the ship can carry four standard 40-foot containers totaling up to 150 tonnes of payload, as reported by PR Newswire.
By eliminating crew quarters, HVAC systems, plumbing, and other human-support infrastructure, the design simplifies construction and frees interior volume for mission equipment. Blue Water Autonomy developed the vessel entirely with private capital, an unusual approach for a full-sized Navy ship, and plans to scale production to 10 to 20 vessels per year using automated panel lines with robotic assembly and welding, according to Military.com.
The Liberty Class falls under the Navy’s Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program and represents the latest step in the Pentagon’s broader push toward autonomous naval platforms that can extend fleet reach without proportionally increasing crew requirements.
IMO Races to Set Global Rules
Both milestones are unfolding against a backdrop of accelerating regulatory work at the International Maritime Organization. According to the IMO’s autonomous shipping overview, the organization’s Maritime Safety Committee has finalized 18 of the planned chapters for its non-mandatory MASS Code, with only the human element chapter still under discussion. The non-mandatory code is targeted for adoption in May 2026, followed by an experience-building phase, development of a mandatory code starting in 2028, and formal adoption by July 2030 at the latest, with entry into force on January 1, 2032.
A key unresolved question is how unmanned ships will meet the longstanding maritime obligation to assist persons in distress at sea. The IMO has agreed that even crewless vessels must have search-and-rescue capability planning, though the technical and operational details remain under negotiation.
What We Don’t Know
Several uncertainties surround both developments. For the Zhi Fei, it remains unclear when or whether fully unmanned operations will extend beyond the controlled feeder routes in Shandong Province to longer international voyages with more complex traffic patterns. The 300-TEU vessel is small by container shipping standards, and scaling the technology to the 20,000-TEU mega-ships that dominate global trade routes presents challenges in sensor coverage, decision-making complexity, and regulatory compliance that have not yet been demonstrated.
For the Liberty Class, the transition from construction to operational deployment involves validating autonomous decision-making in contested environments, a domain where the consequences of software failure extend well beyond commercial loss. The Navy’s track record with autonomous vessel programs has been mixed, and it is not yet clear how quickly serial production will ramp up or whether the privately funded development model will prove sustainable at scale.
The IMO’s 2030 timeline for mandatory rules also assumes continued political consensus among member states with sharply different approaches to autonomy. China is advancing its own national regulatory framework for autonomous ships in parallel, and how these domestic rules will align with or diverge from the international code could shape which technologies gain global market access.