The fourth industrial revolution began a few years ago with the advancement and integration of artificial intelligence, digitalization, and automation in different economic sectors. The naval industry in different countries has also been at the forefront of this revolution, introducing robotics to achieve ships with levels of automation and surface vehicles with autonomous navigation, which can operate without crew on board. This is how the Colombian naval industry has also started this path towards maturity in the development and integration of 4.0 technologies in unmanned surface vehicles (USV), being pointed out in the naval development plan 2042 [1] of the Colombian Navy as an opportunity for technological advancement. COTECMAR, being a fundamental part in the support and projection of the Colombian Navy's capabilities, proposes a route for the design and construction of the first Colombian USV; for this reason, this article presents through a review, the efforts and progress made in the past and to date, as well as what is proposed for the future, the challenges and impact on the Colombian naval industry. This review will allow the generation of a strategic vision in the current members of the project and may also generate new interested parties that, through their knowledge, will generate valuable contributions that can promote a project that will guide the Colombian Navy towards the technological vanguard.