Marine Corps Veterans Association, Sacramento, CA (2026)

10/28/2026

Quantico Iwo Jima Statue Beheaded with Sledgehammer by Alleged Illegal Migrant
By Haley Fuller

A man accused of “decapitating” a Marine figure on Quantico’s Iwo Jima statue with a sledgehammer is allegedly a Mexican national whose protection from deportation expired in August.

Police identified the suspect as Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, of Stafford, Va. The estimated cost of the monument’s damage is hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prince William County Police said officers responding around 10:13 p.m. Oct. 21 found Maldonado Soriano striking the limestone sculpture near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road. He faces felony destruction of property, felony injury to a monument and trespassing with intent to damage property.

As of Friday morning, he remained held without bond with a court date pending.

What Is Known About the Suspect

Maldonado Soriano allegedly entered the United States illegally in December 1999, received protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2014, and received his latest extension in 2024.

His DACA protection reportedly expired in August 2026 without renewal. The immigration details were attributed to unnamed federal sources.

Officers found 27-year-old Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano vandalizing the Quantico Iwo Jima monument with a sledgehammer, according to police.

Authorities have not publicly established why the statue was targeted, leaving no verified basis to connect the alleged vandalism to the expiration of his DACA protection.

The limestone memorial stands at Quantico’s Fuller Road entrance near Richmond Highway, before motorists reach the base’s security checkpoint. Fuller Road continues through the gate into the installation.

The Marines Behind the Monument

Quantico’s limestone sculpture is distinct from the much larger bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington.

Sculptor Felix de Weldon created both, and the Marine Corps identifies the Quantico work as one of the scale models he made while developing the Arlington memorial. Its connection to that process gives the damaged work historical significance beyond its familiar imagery.

The scene comes from Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal’s photograph of Marines raising an American flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. There were two flag raisings on Feb. 23, 1945. Rosenthal captured the second, which became the basis for the memorial sculptures.

The identities of the six flag raisers have been corrected several times, including Marine Corps revisions in 2016 and 2019. Decades after the photograph became a national symbol, researchers were still establishing which Marines appeared in it.

State Charges and Federal Protection

Virginia’s property damage statute expressly protects monuments and memorials.

Intentional damage by someone other than the owner can constitute a Class 6 felony when the property’s value or the damage reaches $1,000. Loss can be established through the fair market cost of repairs or replacement, and a court may order restitution following conviction. The police estimate still requires evidentiary support in court.

A Class 6 felony carries a potential one-to-five-year prison term. Virginia also allows a lesser punishment at the discretion of the jury or judge trying the case without a jury: up to 12 months in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both.

Separate federal memorial protections authorize up to 10 years in prison for willfully damaging qualifying military memorials on public property. Federal jurisdiction requires an additional connection, such as federal ownership or jurisdiction over the land, or specified interstate activity. It is unclear if federal charges will follow in this case.

There is a recent federal enforcement example. An August federal indictment charged Melissa Farris with destruction of a veterans memorial and government property after alleged vandalism at Washington’s World War II Memorial.

Earlier Vandalism Left Lasting Damage

Quantico’s statue has needed specialized repairs before.

Vandals sprayed bright pink paint around part of its base in December 2012. Officials removed the paint, but the porous limestone retained discoloration, according to the Marine Corps’ 2014 restoration account.

That restoration was expected to take six to eight weeks and included replacing a broken finger, repairing crumbling portions of a r***e barrel and fixing cracks and aging caulk.

The earlier project provides a general idea of the work ahead, as even paint removal required specialized treatment. Restoring the newly damaged figures will require an assessment of what original material can be preserved and what must be reconstructed.

10/28/2026

VA Approved More Than 625,000 Upgrades to 100% Disability Ratings in 3 Years, Budget Records Show
By Adam Gramegna

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has raised veterans' combined disability ratings to 100% more than 625,000 times between 2023 and 2025, including roughly 250,000 upgrades last year alone, according to a Military.com review of the department's congressional budget submissions.

In those five years, the share of compensation recipients rated 100% went from about 18% to nearly one-third, while the total number of veterans receiving disability compensation grew about 27%.

Military.com reviewed three years of VA budget tables, pointing to a major driver of that growth. Those are veterans who were already receiving disability compensation and had their ratings increased.

Between Fiscal Years 2023 and 2025, VA recorded roughly three rating increases to 100% for every first-time compensation recipient who entered the system with that rating.

The VA and the Veteran Benefits Administration did not respond to requests for comment.

118,699 Veterans Made the Jump From 90% in a Single Year

In 2025 alone, 255,751 veterans already on the compensation rolls saw their ratings rise to 100%, according to a table in the VA's FY27 budget submission.

Nearly half of them, or 118,699, moved up from a 90% rating.

That transition was the largest source of upgrades to 100%, and the fastest-growing among the department's reported routes to the highest rating. It climbed from 67,837 veterans in 2023 to 94,280 in 2024, and 118,699 in 2025 —a 75% increase in two years.

Under the VA's combined-ratings math, a veteran at 90% can reach 100% when the department grants service connection for an additional condition or finds an existing condition has worsened.

The move carries the largest payment increase between adjacent standard disability rating levels.

At the estimated 2027 rates, a veteran with no dependents would receive about $2,447 a month tax-free at 90%, and about $4,080 at 100%.

For Every Veteran Who Started at 100%, Three Were Moved Up to It

The number of existing VA disability compensation recipients whose ratings increased to 100% climbed each year, from 158,698 in 2023 to 211,218 in 2024 and 255,751 in 2025, according to tables published in three successive budget submissions.

Over the same three fiscal years, 202,086 veterans entered the disability compensation rolls with a 100% combined rating, according to the Veterans Benefits Administration's FY25 Annual Benefits Report, amounting to roughly one new recipient for every three recorded upgrades to 100%.

Veterans entering the compensation rolls in 2025 had an average disability rating of 49.6%, compared with 65.6% among all veterans receiving disability compensation that year. VA budget records show this is a population of approximately 6.3 million.

The annual figures cannot simply be added to determine how many distinct veterans were affected over the three-year period, and the tables don't identify what caused individual ratings to increase.

VA: Largest Jump in Average Disability in ‘Over 30 Years’

VA's own budget language points to several engines running at once.

"The PACT Act, along with regulatory updates, the increasing number of completed claims, and the increasing number of issues per claim have contributed to rising disability ratings," the VA wrote in its FY27 congressional budget submission.

Elsewhere in the submission, the department reported that the average disability rating among veterans receiving compensation rose from 63.1% in 2024 to 65.6% in 2025, describing it as the largest year-over-year increase in more than 30 years.

In 2025, 717,882 veterans, or 11.6% of everyone on the compensation rolls, received increases to their disability ratings, up from 636,987 in 2024.

After those increases, the average resulting rating among veterans who received increases in 2025 was 81.5%. VA's data also show that 255,751 veterans moved from lower disability ratings to 100% that year.

When reached for comment, a VA spokesperson told Military.com that these claims result when veterans file amended claims because their disabilities worsen, new evidence of service connection becomes available, and/or new legislation or regulation allows additional compensation.

However, the department identifies several contributors to rising disability ratings overall. The published rating increase table does not specify how many upgrades to 100% resulted from the PACT Act, other regulatory changes, or particular medical conditions.

A Million More Veterans at 100% Since 2019, and It Started Pre-PACT

The trend predates the burn pit law. VA budget tables show the average monthly number of veterans with 100% disability ratings increased from 763,663 in FY 2019 to 958,897 in FY21, before the PACT Act became law.

The PACT Act, which added more than 20 presumptive conditions for toxic exposure, was signed in August 2022. VA began fully processing claims under the law on Jan. 1, 2023, after beginning expedited processing for certain terminally ill veterans the previous month.

By the end of FY25, the number of veterans receiving compensation with 100% combined disability ratings had reached 1,847,449, according to the VA's Annual Benefits Report.

The number of new compensation recipients entering the rolls with a 100% rating also increased, from 33,692 in FY21 to 48,848 in FY22 and 73,649 in FY25.

One number that barely moved was enrollment in Individual Unemployability, a separate benefit that allows qualifying veterans whose service-connected disabilities prevent substantially gainful employment to receive compensation at the 100% rate.

The number of veterans receiving Individual Unemployability benefits increased approximately 3% between June 2021 and June 2026, according to VA statistics. Unlike a schedular 100% rating, an Individual Unemployability award does not change a veteran's underlying combined disability rating.

Those totals alone do not show whether the increase in 100% ratings reflects the PACT Act extending benefits to newly eligible veterans, worsening service-connected conditions, greater awareness of available compensation, or a combination of factors.

10/27/2026

DOD Memo Greenlights DHS Use of Military 'Heat Ray' at US-Mexico Border
By Adam Gramegna

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly loaned the military's so-called "heat ray" to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), handing civilian law enforcement a crowd-control weapon the Pentagon developed two decades ago.

The memo, signed by Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN, authorized a "temporary loan" of one Active Denial System for seven months starting in September. The system was originally sent to Afghanistan and brought home without ever being used in combat.

The memo says the system "shall not be operated by DoW (Department of War) personnel," leaving DHS solely responsible for employing the weapon and for developing the tactics, techniques and procedures governing its use.

DHS can ask to keep the system longer when the loan ends.

Former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta first reported the leaked memo Oct. 8 on his independent platform. CNN published additional details Tuesday, reporting that internal discussions have centered on using the system to disperse crowds at the southern border.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Military.com the following: “CBP is continually evaluating new technology, especially technology that can save lives while simultaneously enhancing national security effectiveness.”

A Weapon the Military Shelved Without Firing

Built around an invisible beam of 95 GHz millimeter-wave energy, the Active Denial System has a range of more than half a mile, according to the military's descriptions of the weapon.

The beam heats the surface of the skin, producing a burning sensation Pentagon officials have compared to opening a hot oven, along with an effect officials say lasts 10 to 15 minutes and creates a strong urge to move away.

During testing in 2007, an airman with the 820th Security Forces Group at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia suffered second-degree burns and was treated at a hospital, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The military later deployed the system to Afghanistan but brought it home in 2010 without using it in combat, according to the BBC at the time. Officials considered it for crowd control at overseas detention facilities without employing it there.

It surfaced again in 2020. NPR reported that the Pentagon's lead military police officer for the National Capital Region emailed the District of Columbia National Guard asking whether it had an Active Denial System available before federal forces cleared protesters near Lafayette Square.

A Guard major later told Congress the Guard had no such system.

DHS Asked Before and its Own Secretary Said No

CBP officials weighed using the system against migrants in 2018, but then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected the idea, according to CNN.

A former DHS official told the network the proposal raised concerns about treating immigrants and American citizens like enemy combatants.

Border Patrol's El Centro sector in California evaluated the system several years ago under Rodney Scott, who now leads CBP. Those discussions focused on deterring river crossings or pushing people out of the water, according to CNN, and a former CBP official warned of drowning risks if people were driven toward the water.

ADS advanced concept technology demonstration
Air Force Col. John R. Decknick provides information to reporters during the Active Denial System advanced concept technology demonstration. Courtesy photo

Some Border Patrol agents doubt they need the tool at all, another former CBP official told CNN, with illegal crossings at low levels and staffing up.

A CBP spokesperson said the agency continually evaluates new technologies, especially those that improve operational effectiveness.

The memo does not say where or how the system would be tested or used, and the weapon has never been operationally deployed anywhere.

Federal law allows the defense secretary to make military equipment available to civilian law enforcement, and the memo's bar on military operators tracks the laws that keep troops out of direct domestic enforcement.

The loan language does not, however, guarantee how the weapon could lawfully be used against people.

DHS regulations require officers to use the objectively reasonable level of force necessary based on the totality of the circumstances. Officials previously raised sovereign concerns about a beam that can reach across the border into Mexico, according to CNN.

The loan runs into next spring, with an extension available on request. No document made public so far explains where the system is, who would fire it, or under what rules of engagement it would be utilized.

10/27/2026

24-Year-Old Coast Guard Swimmer Says He Fought Waves and Darkness to Rescue 16 People from Ocean
By Jaimie Ding

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Strapped into a harness, Josh Law was lowered from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter into the rough Pacific Ocean in the pitch black night, far off the Mexican coast.

The force of the helicopter blades pummeled the water, whipping up spray and turbulence. The Coast Guard rescue swimmer couldn’t hear anything over the noise or see anything in the darkness. Waves of 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) hit him.

All he could do was follow the searchlight from the helicopter with the hope it would lead him to the more than two dozen people flung into the cold waters some 140 miles (225 kilometers) off the coast of Mexico’s Baja peninsula. He would personally rescue 16 of them.

“I was experiencing exhaustion at that point," Law, 24, told The Associated Press in his first interview since the rescue. "We had very little sleep. But what I was experiencing was nothing compared to what they were at that point ... I just had to keep that in mind.”

Over the next two hours in the predawn hours of Oct. 16, Law was the sole person in the water who would get the people whose boat had capsized to safety. Eleven others were never found. The Coast Guard called off its search late Sunday.

Law described the dramatic operation to save lives along a remote route frequented by migrant smuggling boats. What the boat was doing out there and where it originated from are part of a federal investigation. It was unclear if the vessel got lost, had engine failure, was swept out to sea or meant to go that far. Only pieces of the boat were found. All who were rescued are Mexican, the Mexican consulate said.

The Coast Guard said U.S. Customs and Border Protection was investigating and interviewing the survivors, but the agency did not respond to multiple inquiries on whether the vessel was a migrant smuggling boat.

The alarm sounded, awakening the Coast Guard crew

The mayday call came in around 1 a.m.

Someone said their boat was sinking in the middle of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico.

Within minutes, the alarm sounded at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Ventura, northwest of Los Angeles, rousing Law and his colleagues from their sleep.

Helicopter pilot Lt. Miyako Miller checked flying conditions and planned the flight route that would take the crew of four over the vast ocean south of the U.S. border.

Law prepared his dry suit, fins and medical items, then put on a harness that would be hooked onto a cable to lower him down from the aircraft into the ocean.

By 2 a.m., they were taking off from the Coast Guard station in Ventura.

Pilot says she was guided by the stars.

Miller wore night vision goggles to help her fly in the dark. She said she relied on the stars, with no moonlight that night.

As the crew approached the reported location of the sinking, Miller spotted a tiny flicker of light in the distance.

Then she spotted what looked like debris floating in the water, but it was difficult to distinguish what it was. Miller carefully navigated the helicopter over the area, lowering the aircraft until it was hovering about 40 feet (12 meters) above the water.

“I’m doing my best to maintain my references externally by looking outside through the night vision goggles," Miller said, adding that meanwhile “the flight mechanic is telling me where to position the helicopter.”

Some 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of Ensenada, Mexico, is Guadalupe Island, a biosphere reserve that is well known as a place brimming with great white sharks.

Law said he didn’t think about what was in the water as he hooked himself to a cable and zipped into the ocean, strapped in a harness.

There was no time to waste. While Law’s dry suit provided some warmth, he knew the others had already spent hours in hypothermic temperature waters.

Law said he was guided by a searchlight from the crew, which allowed him to catch a glimpse of the people in the water.

They were scattered across a wide area. Some were wearing life vests that had tiny lights that produced the flicker first spotted by Miller. Others clung onto one another, buoys and pieces of wreckage, shivering and treading water to stay afloat.

Law said he swam to them, flipped them on their backs, put his arm over them and pulled them up using the “buddy tow” technique. Kicking his legs to swim, he carried them to the spot where he could signal the flight mechanic to lower a basket for them to be picked up.

“With one hand, I’m holding the survivor. With the other, I am signaling to the helicopter and working with the device,” he said.

He placed them into the basket, one by one. Then it was hoisted up repeatedly to the helicopter where the crew got each person into the aircraft before lowering the basket again.

Law’s dry suit slowly filled up to his knees with water, feeling like weights pulling on him as he battled heavy waves while swimming back and forth.

With little fuel, the crew flew to San Diego where ambulances waited.

With a packed helicopter and dwindling fuel, the crew decided to head to the Coast Guard station in San Diego where ambulances were waiting.

On the flight, Law treated three people with what he described as “bad” wounds, staunching the bleeding. Several of the injuries were “consistent with shark bites" and the Coast Guard provided life-saving first aid, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

Customs and Border Protection officers went to a hospital and said they would process the survivors according to immigration laws after they were medically cleared. Nearly half of those rescued have since been returned to Mexico, U.S. officials said.

Law and his crew returned to Ventura that morning — it was by far the longest rescue operation he had ever done, he said.

The search for the 11 others continued for another two days to no avail. The Coast Guard, alongside Mexico and the U.S. Navy, searched more than 2,441 square miles (6,322 square kilometers) for a combined 89 hours.

Migrants are increasingly turning to the risky alternative offered by smugglers to travel by sea to avoid heavily guarded land borders. Small boats called pangas leave Baja at night and sometimes travel hundreds of miles (kilometers) north.

10/27/2026

Veterans Across 11 States to Receive 90,000 Donated Winter Coats from Discount Retailer
By Derricke Dennis

Veterans throughout the Northeast, New England and the Mid-Atlantic are beginning to benefit from an annual multi-state coat drive ahead of the winter chill.

Discount retailer Ocean State Job Lot (OSJL) is holding its "11th Annual Buy-Give-Get Coats" program, allowing customers in 11 states to buy a coat and then donate it to a veteran or someone else in need. The program began last week and runs through the end of December.

David Sarlitto, vice president of corporate giving for Ocean State Job Lot, told Military.com the program has grown exponentially over the years.

"We started 12 years ago in New Hampshire, I think with maybe 1,000 coats. Now, it's 90,000," Sarlitto said. "The number of coats seems to keep going up, which I think is not necessarily a good sign.

"It's good we're doing it. But the fact that there are so many in such great need is always a little bothersome."

The program gives customers across OSJL's 177-store footprint, from Maine to Maryland, the opportunity to buy a warm winter coat at any of their discount stores for $45.

Then, they give the coat back to the store to be donated to veterans and others in need. In turn, the customer gets a $45 gift card as a 'thank you.'

"We bring in the coats, and we give our customers the chance to buy one," Sarlitto said. "They give them back to us to donate to a military family or a veteran in need who might not have a winter coat. Then, we give the customer a gift card for their donation. It's a win-win."

Since the program began in 2016, Sarlitto said OSJL has donated more than 450,000 winter coats.

This year's initiative involves a network of more than 50 veteran and community support organizations across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions to help distribute the coats ahead of the winter months.

"We buy them right out of the factory, wrapped in plastic, ranging in size from medium all the way up through double XLs," Sarlitto said. "These aren't lightweight coats. These are coats that people under a bridge or wherever, in the worst of Northeast weather, will do OK."

Mixed Numbers on Veteran Homelessness

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 32,000 veterans experience homelessness on any given night in the United States, though recent data shows veteran homelessness is on track to drop to historic lows.

The VA reports that veteran homelessness fell 8.2% in 2026—the biggest drop in 10 years—with federal projections indicating a further drop below 30,000, marking a big decrease compared to over a decade ago.

The VA also keeps track of the demographics for homeless veterans, with about 50% listed as age 51 or older; 51% have a disability; 50% face mental illness; and 70% have substance issues.

Sarlitto said he's seen the need firsthand.

"I've been to the northern reaches of Maine with pallets of coats, handing them out with the wind blowing so cold," he said. "It's experiences like that, when you get out of a truck and you're meeting the people who are actually on the ground—they're meeting the person who makes the calls. I wouldn't give up that experience for the world."

'Anything We Can Do to Help'

The Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation has a long history of philanthropic leadership and support of numerous causes.

The foundation’s operational, administrative and overhead expenses are covered by the company rather than the foundation, ensuring that 100% of every dollar raised goes directly to helping those in need.

The company's outreach to veterans' groups adds a special purpose for Sarlitto, who said many veterans struggle with basic necessities long after they've left the service.

"I get a little angry with some folks who think veterans sign up for hardship while getting benefits for life," Sarlitto said. "I would say they did not sign up to have an arm and shoulder shot off. I can guarantee that.

"So, anything we can do to help these folks and the military families that support them, then we're going to do it."

Ocean State Job Lot is one of the leading discount retail chains in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. Founded in 1977, OSJL has 177 stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

With nearly 7,000 employees, the company is headquartered in North Kingstown, R.I., and reports annual sales over $900 million.

OSJL was named a five-time “Best Employer” by Forbes, a six-time U.S. "Best Managed Company" by Deloitte, and one of America’s greatest workplaces for parents and families by Newsweek.

10/21/2026

Marines Back $20 Million Flying Boat That Could Skim 30 Feet Above Waves
By Robert Billard

The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab is putting another $5 million into an electric craft that takes off from the water, flies about 30 feet above the waves and lands without a runway.

REGENT Craft, the Rhode Island company building the Viceroy Seaglider, announced Sept. 30 that the extension brings its partnership with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) to $19.25 million to date.

The company's headline rounds that to $20 million. The new money pays for a fourth phase of demonstrations and command-and-control work with six planned deliverables, The Defense Post reported.

The deal pays for testing. When the lab signed its first agreement in 2023, REGENT co-founder and CEO Billy Thalheimer told Marine Corps Times the service was not purchasing any craft and that its money would mature the technology and validate the concept.

What the lab is testing goes at the hardest problem in the Corps' Force Design update: moving people and supplies between small units spread across islands. "You have these vast distances where effectively you have to run a supply chain," Lieutenant General James Glynn, commander of Marine Corps Forces Pacific, told reporters in June, according to Stars and Stripes.

"What started as a feasibility question has become a real operational program," Thalheimer said in the company's announcement.

What a Seaglider Is

A Seaglider is a wing-in-ground effect craft. It flies within one wingspan of the water, where ground effect cuts drag and improves efficiency. For the Viceroy, that means about 30 feet above the surface, according to REGENT.

It works in three modes. The craft floats on its hull at low speed, rises onto hydrofoils once it clears the dock and then lifts into ground effect. The hydrofoils are REGENT's answer to the old knock on these machines. DARPA has described the Soviet "ekranoplans" as fast and runway-independent but "restricted to calm waters" with "limited maneuverability."

Regulators treat it as a boat. Under federal law, wing-in-ground craft are small passenger vessels overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard, and certified mariners captain them, according to REGENT. Thalheimer pitched that as a manpower advantage in 2023.

"These can be enlisted service men and women who are at the helm of this, driving it like a boat with essentially all the capabilities of an aircraft," he told Marine Corps Times.

From a $4.75 Million Test to a Fourth Phase

REGENT signed its first MCWL agreement, worth $4.75 million, in October 2023. The goals were to prove the craft in hull, foil and wing-borne modes and to inform risk reduction and craft-level certification requirements.

Retired General Robert Neller, the 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps and a member of REGENT's defense advisory board, said at the time, "In the littorals we have to move, and signature management is critical."

In March 2025, REGENT said it had finished that first contract and signed a second phase estimated at $10 million. The Defense Post put that phase at $9.5 million for full-scale prototype demonstrations. REGENT unveiled the full-scale Viceroy prototype and began crewed sea trials in Narragansett Bay that same month.

REGENT hosted lab staff on the water to watch testing, the company said in an Aug. 6, 2025, post. "The whole team here is excited to see this in the water and to see these demonstrations," Matthew Koch, an MCWL project officer, said in that post.

In November 2025, REGENT ran three rescue drills for the Marine partnership: dockside litter boarding of a patient who could not walk, a simulated beach extraction and an open-water life raft rescue.

Tom Huntley, general manager of REGENT Defense, told Janes the agreement focuses on medical and casualty evacuation, contested logistics, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. He said lessons from the drills would help the Corps build tactics "as we move towards a Program of Record."

On Sept. 2, 2026, the prototype made its first crewed flight over Narragansett Bay. Two captains flew it 1,956 feet at 33 feet above the water for 30 seconds, REGENT said. Four weeks later, the lab added the $5 million.

"This next phase of our MCWL partnership is about putting the technology in the hands of the war fighter," said Becky Russo, REGENT's director of defense mission integration.

Speed, Range and Payload on Paper

The figures below are REGENT design targets. The prototype's first crewed flight lasted 30 seconds.

• Speed: up to 180 mph, which REGENT's spec sheet lists as 156 knots.

• Range: up to 180 miles on battery. REGENT says a hybrid version could cover up to 1,400 nautical miles.

• Load: 12 passengers and two crew, or 3,500 pounds of cargo.

• Size: 55 feet long with a 65-foot wingspan and a 15,000-pound maximum takeoff weight.

REGENT is also developing the larger Monarch, a 50- to 100-passenger Seaglider with delivery targeted before the end of the decade.

On signature, REGENT says flying that low keeps Seagliders "below radar and above high-range sonar" and that electric propulsion keeps heat and infrared signature down. Those are company claims, not Marine Corps findings.

Waves, Charging and Certification

Weather is a tangible limit for operations. REGENT says the Viceroy can take off and land comfortably in 5-foot waves and fly over waves up to 13 feet, a ceiling set by an emergency landing scenario.

Power presents another field problem. REGENT's defense materials say a 60-kilowatt tactical generator would need about 17 hours to fully charge one Viceroy, enough for two supply runs. The company pitches ship power and barge-mounted battery packs as faster options and says one 1-megawatt-hour pack could charge two Viceroys in an hour.

Under federal law, a Seaglider carrying even one paying passenger is regulated as a Coast Guard small passenger vessel. The 2024 FAA reauthorization gave the FAA and the Coast Guard until May 2026 to sign an agreement dividing oversight of such craft, from design approval to crew certification and inspection. REGENT expects its first customer deliveries in 2027.

The Pentagon has tried big ground-effect ideas before. DARPA ended Liberty Lifter, a heavy-lift seaplane meant to fly low over the ocean with roughly the size and capacity of a C-17, in June 2025 after spending about $98 million, Defense News reported. It never built a demonstrator.

"We've learned we can build a flying boat capable of takeoff and landing in high sea states," program manager Christopher Kent told Defense News. DARPA also said more work was needed to blend maritime construction with aircraft certification.

The Seaglider joins other contested-logistics bets, from large unmanned surface vessels to the low-profile resupply boats one littoral regiment commander has said his Marines will lean on. "I need them to be survivable," Colonel Peter Eltringham said of his logistics and support Marines in April 2025.

Next, the Viceroy will be tested in conditions relevant to military missions and tied into defense command-and-control systems, according to The Defense Post.

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