Abstract With growing worldwide interest in commercial, scientific, and military issues associated with both oceans and shallow waters, there has been a corresponding growth in demand for the development of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with advanced guidance, navigation and control (GNC) capabilities. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of recent progress in USVs development. The paper first provides an overview of both historical and recent USVs development, along with some fundamental definitions. Next, existing USVs GNC approaches are outlined and classified according to various criteria, such as their applications, methodologies, and challenges. Finally, more general challenges and future directions of USVs towards more practical GNC capabilities are highlighted.