The UK will join Norway’s programme to develop offshore support vessels designed to deploy uncrewed minehunting and undersea-warfare systems, the Ministry of Defence stated.
The collaboration forms a central element of the new Lunna House Agreement, announced as Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Støre at RAF Lossiemouth.
According to the MOD, the agreement is intended to strengthen protection of critical North Atlantic infrastructure amid what it describes as a 30 percent rise in Russian vessels detected near UK waters over the past two years. Both governments said the pact deepens long-standing cooperation and aligns with NATO priorities.
The press release confirms the UK’s entry into Norway’s unmanned support-vessel programme, stating that the agreement will see the “UK joining Norwegian programme to develop motherships for uncrewed mine hunting and undersea warfare systems.” This sits alongside wider industrial and operational cooperation on Type 26 frigates, naval strike missiles, torpedo stockpiles and Arctic training.
Prime Minister Starmer said the agreement strengthens the UK’s defensive posture. “At this time of profound global instability, as more Russian ships are being detected in our waters, we must work with international partners to protect our national security,” he said. “This historic agreement with Norway strengthens our ability to protect our borders and the critical infrastructure our nations depend on.”
Defence Secretary John Healey spoke on the shared approach to countering Russian submarine activity. “In this new era of threat and with increasing Russian activity in the North Atlantic, our strength comes from hard power and strong alliances,” he said. “Through this Lunna House Agreement, we will patrol the North Atlantic as one, train together in the Arctic, and develop the advanced equipment that will keep our citizens safe now and into the future.”
The mothership element expands on work both navies are already pursuing. The UK is replacing traditional minehunters with autonomous mine-countermeasure systems operated from larger support vessels under its Mine Hunting Capability programme, the broader plan here will require several hulls to act as motherships.
The agreement ties these efforts together, creating shared development pathways and shared operational concepts. It also links directly to existing industrial cooperation between BAE Systems and Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, which are exploring potential support-vessel options. One candidate is the Kongsberg Vanguard concept, which offers modular bays and launch facilities suited to uncrewed underwater systems.
The MOD said the combined approach supports NATO’s broader push for autonomous capabilities in the High North and gives both navies a more persistent way to monitor seabed infrastructure, track threats and conduct mine-countermeasure operations without relying on traditional crewed platforms.
If you want to know more look at the Vanguard page on Kongsberg’s website. There is quite a lot of info there on the design and application.
Hopefully the design is mature enough to allow construction in the not too distant future.
We’re probably still only getting 3
Hugo coffee and sugar now.. then repeat after me.. good things do happen and good thing happen all the time, I will embrace good things.
Lemme know when they stop delaying the DIP and maybe I’ll believe you
I will give you that one as long as you promise to think some positive thoughts..
To me this is good news as it’s possibly 5 hulls ( OSV and mine ) that are deployable and could essentially act as a 21c patrol frigate… but also not taking up building space in UK yards which cannot handle the work for at least the next 5 years..
Mirror image of the T26 deal. We take alternate deliveries of the Norwegian ship. Something like the Icelandic Thor 👌 5 off.
This seems like a good move, pinning MOD down to actually getting the minehunting motherships we need, and many commenters on this site speculated that we’d order Vanguard in reciprocation for a Type 26 order. It’s interesting that the article shies away from saying explicitly that it would be Vanguard, given that MOD already publicised a small, cheap study on the suitability of Vanguard for this purpose about 18 months ago. What was the result of that study?
I assume that these will not be deemed suitable for MRSS by the RN, who want MRSS to be more suitable for fighting. However, will the government fall into line or count these as amphibious platforms?
They’re far too small to do anything amphibious
They are two separate things. MRSS have been funding and are going to be large scale for amphibious jobs.
I know they wanted 3 drone/motherships but if these can be build cheaply we could have 5-10 of these for the North Sea. That would allow 3 to be out to see all the time
The designs on Kongsberg’s website clearly show this as a small ship specifically designed to launch and control drones and small teams. It has no amphibious capability. How they tie in with RFA Proteus and HMS Stirling Castle I am not sure. Do they complement each other or will Vanguard replace them?
MRSS will be a different class of ship entirely, much larger, with a well deck and potentially fit with Mk41 VLS for CAMM and FC/ASW. The last time I heard Radakin talk about them this was his thinking. Whether that comes to fruition is anyone’s guess.
The funded study was for mine warfare and for the OSV capabilities so it looks like the RN wants one hull type for both activities which makes sense and gives you five hulls..
It’s pretty clear proteus and castle were all about concept work and are not likely to be deployable beyond that in the local EEZ.
The study for this has been going on for some time now, I think the government handed over 300 million at the beginning of the year for a review of this vessel type to cover its OSV requirements and mine warfare requirement in one vessel type.. so we are probably looking at 5 in total, that would make sense as that would with the Rivers 2s make for 10 patrol type vessels that can cart around autonomous systems ( the RN always wanted 10 ocean going patrol craft) .. I would imagine if the RN is being clever it could then in 15 years retire out the Rivers 2 for 5 more of these for a single cogent patrol mother ship fleet..
What is also interesting is these are modular beasts that can its seems be made up to a patrol frigate armament ( medium gun, short range air defence missiles and NSM)… which means the RN would be able to modify them depending on threat.. if one is deployed in local EEZ just the gun.. if it’s the Falklands guard ship or deployed east or suez it could have a patrol frigate configuration.
It’s worth remembering the RN did love a light patrol frigate and they have their uses… as long as you don’t throw them into the deep end.
DIP is definitely coming soon, these are a series of pretty important decisions that are being taken.
I like the more general collaboration with Norway as well.
Ah good another project we were short of them. We might have a small Army, old kit and next to no SP Arty but we top the world in dead end, filler, may be may, be not projects and meetons we are the world leader.
The army is in dire straights for sure, but we have an immediate direct threat to the UK’s infrastructure, specifically undersea cables and pipes. These ships are needed and should be a priority imo.
Totally agree deal with treath in order and as you can, but its just seems a lot open projects but nothing else big lack of orders or even to be honest lack direction. The MOD and very much the Army seem to be incapable of doing any thing but talking, releasing wind bag statments and having projects. Not sure why is it a lack of money, or a lack of leadership? or just are things behind the scenes that bad no one is really in control?