This study explores the course tracking control problem of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) under the influence of actuator faults and internal and external uncertainties. In the control strategy desig n, we first model the unknown dynamics and use adaptive technology to construct an online appro ximator to compensate for the unknown dynamics of the system. Under the framework of adaptive backstepping, a robust adaptive course tracking control scheme is constructed. This control strategy does not require any prior knowledge of the model in advance. The stability analysis of the theoret ical mathematical derivation of the control strategy was conducted based on Lyapunov stability theo ry. Finally, the effectiveness of the control strategy proposed in this paper was verified through sim ulation.