We have successfully completed a sheltered-water autonomous towing demonstration for @DARPA’s Pulling Guard program. In under six months, our team moved from selection for the program to designing, building, and testing a new vessel created for this effort. During the demonstration, the uncrewed vessel autonomously executed every phase of the towing concept of operations, from station-keeping and connection through towing transit and a controlled disconnect. Every planned test objective was met, including proving that autonomous winch control could be fully integrated with Saronic’s existing autonomy stack and operate as a single coordinated system throughout the sequence. Pulling Guard aims to develop flexible, semi-autonomous surface vessel systems that can escort and help protect unarmed logistics vessels at sea. Reliable autonomous towing and station-keeping are foundational to that concept, and proving these capabilities early reduces technical risk and generates real-world data that will inform the platform’s design and development as the program advances. We are proud to continue working with DARPA to move that concept closer to reality.