The Royal Navy’s transformation into a mixed fleet of crewed and uncrewed warships is gathering pace, according to new written answers from Defence Ministers outlining progress on the Hybrid Navy concept and the development of the Atlantic Bastion initiative.
In a response to Ben Obese-Jecty MP, Minister Al Carns said the Royal Navy has made “significant early progress in delivering an integrated frigate force comprising crewed, uncrewed, and autonomous platforms.”
The effort is being delivered “through a new, dynamic partnership with industry” and is described as central to the UK’s future anti-submarine warfare capability.
Carns confirmed that the Type 26 frigate will remain “the cornerstone of the Royal Navy’s crewed anti-submarine warfare capability plan” and will be central to the Atlantic Bastion programme, designed to secure the North Atlantic against subsurface threats. He added that “trials of several uncrewed surface and sub-surface systems” are already underway, with the intent that they will integrate directly with crewed ships such as the Type 26.
The First Sea Lord, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, set out the wider vision behind this shift during DSEI 2025, unveiling Atlantic Bastion as “a groundbreaking concept revolutionising how we protect the UK and its allies in the underwater environment.” Jenkins described a future in which a Type 26 frigate sails alongside two uncrewed escort ships using artificial intelligence to coordinate their movements and missions.
“Together, they provide a three-ship task group in their own right,” he said. Jenkins added that the first of these uncrewed escorts is expected to sail with Royal Navy warships within two years.
In a separate response, Carns said the First Sea Lord had also outlined a “bold new vision for a ‘Hybrid Navy,’” as mandated by the 2025 Strategic Defence Review. This paradigm shift, he explained, “proposes far greater use of autonomous systems, digitisation, and Artificial Intelligence to create a fleet of crewed and uncrewed systems, increasing the mass and lethality of future Naval Task Groups.”
The good aspect of these vessels is the possibility of a rapid procurement process over conventional crewed hulls. Hopefully, the RN can establish a sizable fleet within the next five years or so.
You can see the Russians causing a lot of havoc with these unmanned drones out in the Atlantic. The US navy tried these a few years ago in the gulf and Iran just grabbed it and there was f**k all the USN could do about it because anything unmanned in international waters is salvage.
I wonder if any of the geniuses at the MoD have figured this out. The Russians can even pay salvage companies to do it.
It’s actually probably far better just to put the very expensive towed arrays on cheap commercial hulls like the USN does with SURTASS then you don’t have to worry about them getting nicked.
That is the reason for the optionally crewed bit….?
It is for the surface drones but not the underwater drones. If you’re going to start having minimal crew on them then pretty quickly it gets expensive and you may as well buy a commercial vessel with minimal crew to do the job.
The T83 drones are optionally manned.
They’ll be able to outrun the Russian warships as they are limited to the speed of their accompanying tugs… 😏
I have no evidence for this, but it feels like we’re moving too fast.
I shall believe it when I see it with the two years bit.
No excuse for not having an escort fleet of at least 30 Escorts, and we are half that after constant cuts by several successive governments.
I fear though, that will be the excuse. It seems “Oven Ready.”
Yes, 30 Escorts minimum.
Plus some Granada’s, Fiesta’s and a whole bunch of Attack Capri’s with all the Ghia.