From a standing ovation for Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces to a minister demanding a thousand-ship uncrewed navy, Navy Leaders delivered three days at Farnborough that the maritime defence world will not forget quickly.

Europe’s largest annual naval event returned to Farnborough from 19 to 21 May 2026, bringing together more than 2,200 senior naval leaders, government officials, industry representatives, and international partners from over 85 nations. CNE 2026 arrived at a moment of genuine strategic urgency.

The overarching theme running through three days of sessions, launches, and conversations was the Royal Navy’s hybrid fleet ambition, an aspiration that has moved rapidly from concept to contested industrial territory, with multiple companies arriving at Farnborough with credible propositions and a clear sense that the window to shape the programme is now.

The most discussed idea on the floor was not a platform or a weapon system. It was a philosophy. Babcock’s Sir Nick Hine made the case for what he called “commanded autonomy,” arguing that humans must remain firmly in control of intent, authorisation, and accountability.

The logic behind it was blunt. Hine told the audience: “Today’s war zones have provided irrefutable evidence. Low-cost distributed systems probe, persist, and saturate, exposing weaknesses in traditional force structures, often at a tempo that outpaces conventional procurement cycles. No allied navy will simply grow a bigger fleet quickly enough to match the pace of threat.”

Babcock’s industrial answer is ARMOR Force, the Autonomous and Remote Maritime Operational Response Force, an architecture of disaggregated systems designed for independent operations and connected by digital capabilities. It comprises a Type 31 frigate configured as a Common Command Vessel, large uncrewed surface vessels, and modular containerised Persistent Operational Deployment Systems for rapid capability deployment. Hine was equally clear that this is not a replacement for existing programmes. “It’s important to remember this is an and, not an or,” he told the room.

HII used the event to showcase its REMUS and ROMULUS systems, marking 25 years of the REMUS UUV family and highlighting the platform’s role in the Royal Navy’s hybrid fleet through the Babcock ARMOR Force partnership.

World firsts and new launches

Several companies used CNE 2026 as a launch platform. CiS claimed a world first, unveiling a fully autonomous drone dock capable of launching and recovering a UAS from a moving ship without any operator intervention. British firm RAD launched its Autonomy Core remote vessel control system, expanding into defence with a product designed to support hybrid fleet ambitions. Navantia UK unveiled a large autonomous warship concept, positioning itself as a key supplier for the Royal Navy’s hybrid fleet of the future.

BAE Systems and Thales confirmed that the Herne XLAUV is moving beyond prototype stage, with demonstrations planned for 2027 as the companies position the platform for future hybrid fleet operations.

Not every story at CNE 2026 was about autonomy as JFD’s Pete Laughton told us that divers must go deeper and stay longer as the mine threat resurges and underwater capability demands intensify, with military divers now expected to operate as part of a much broader maritime warfare system, interoperable with autonomous vehicles, tactical dive vehicles, and command nodes in an increasingly congested underwater domain. Those requirements directly informed the design of JFD’s new Stealth Multi-Role rebreather, built from the outset to be adaptable rather than fixed to a single mission profile.

The final day opened with a ministerial address from Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, who told a packed auditorium: “I want a thousand-ship navy, but I want most of those ships to be uncrewed. We have been locked into a narrative of how many crewed platforms we have for too long: I want us to expand our thinking.” He added: “We only need to look at what Ukraine have done. If it doesn’t work in Ukraine, I don’t want to buy it here.”

He was immediately followed by a representative from Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, unnamed and unphotographed for operational security reasons, whose briefing on the current and future capabilities of Ukraine’s maritime uncrewed systems drew a standing ovation from the room.

BMT published a paper at the event arguing that the shift to a hybrid navy will change command at sea more fundamentally than any development since Admiral Fisher’s reforms. The Royal Navy’s Director Acquisition, Rear Admiral Matthew Stratton, closed the event with a summary of where the hybrid fleet ambition now stands. “Hybrid Navy is fundamentally simple: crewed where necessary, uncrewed where possible, and integrated. The question is, how do we deliver it at pace, at scale and in partnership?” His conclusion was unambiguous: “The Hybrid Navy is not just a future aspiration: it is already being delivered.”

All ten nations of the Joint Expeditionary Force also signed a statement of intent to develop a more integrated multinational force across the High North, a development that sits directly alongside the Atlantic Bastion and Atlantic Net concepts being shaped with industry.

A defining three days

The event organisers noted that more than 3,000 people passed through the doors across the three days, with representatives from 86 nations, and that the vast majority of exhibiting firms had already rebooked for 2027. CNE 2026 arrived at a rare convergence of political will, industrial momentum, and operational urgency.

The hybrid navy is no longer a vision statement. Companies are building it, arguing over the architecture, and competing for the contracts that will define the Royal Navy for a generation.