The Ministry of Defence has formally terminated plans to procure an uncrewed surface vessel under Project Lily, bringing an end to a programme that had been expected to deliver a contractor-supported maritime autonomous platform for global operations.
A termination notice published on 3 February 2026 by Defence Equipment and Support confirms that the contract will not be signed and that the procurement is no longer going ahead. The decision not to proceed was taken on 16 January 2026, according to the notice.
Project Lily had been trailed in a procurement pipeline notice issued in May 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. That notice set out plans to acquire a single commercial off-the-shelf uncrewed surface vessel, along with a dedicated Remote Operations Centre, to support year-round operations in open ocean environments. The estimated value of the programme was £27.3 million including VAT, with a planned contract duration of four years from January 2026 to January 2030.
The proposed capability was intended to support military data-gathering tasks, with a particular focus on hydrographic and oceanographic activity. Early documentation indicated the vessel would initially operate under a Government Owned, Commercially Operated model for two years, before transitioning to Government Owned, Government Operated status with continued commercial support.
At the time, the pipeline notice suggested the requirement could attract interest from companies specialising in marine robotics, autonomous vessels and maritime sensing technologies. The procurement was framed as part of a wider effort to exploit uncrewed systems for tasks critical to undersea awareness and maritime operations.
No explanation beyond “procurement no longer going ahead” is provided in the termination notice, and the Ministry of Defence has not set out whether elements of the requirement may be revisited in a revised form or folded into other programmes. As things stand, the cancellation removes one of the more clearly defined near-term opportunities for an MoD-operated uncrewed surface vessel capability.
The first Unmanned plan bites the dust, it will not be the last.
Well quite
What do the MOD and the various linked agencies actually do apart from sit on their bums or are they remote working or is that remotely working
Lots of plana plans and more plans costing ££££££££ and not seeing fruition
Please tell us MOD when is the DIP coming or is the Treasury saying no £££££
Please tell us Government why you are not ordering
It will be 2 years shortly that you have been in power and probably will be when you finally announce the DIP
Apologies but extremely frustrated on what could be great export earnings when looking at other countries
I doubt the delay is much to do with the Government. They have given defence an extra £14 bn, it’s now with the services to whittle down their wishlists to fit the money on the table. We know already that what they have pitched for is £28bn over budget, so there are going to be quite a few other pet projects like this unmanned survey vessel that fall by the wayside.
I would think that the SoS will eventually need to bang some heads together to finalise the plan, especially to trim down the RN’s bumper bundle of extra goodies.
Frankly the additional funds are chump change. The knock on effects of the several decades of hollowing out , especially during the last 14 years of the previous Conservative government have left the MoD with multiple headaches they need to get ahead of.
Case in point. The Dreadnaughts should have been ordered 5 years ago . The fact several of the subs have exceeded their inservice date means the maintenance requirement is going up exponentially . This is causing a huge drain on the budget. Further because key maintenance facilities for the subs was not maintained ( eg the Faslane ship lift) this has had a knock on effect to the Fleet boats coupled with BAE have been asked to work flat out to build the new SSBN in a compressed time scale is putting a huge drain on the budget.
Our frigates are going out of service faster than we are replacing them .
We need a surge of capital or we will always be running flat out just to stand still due to the short sightedness and stupid decision making of the past.
Came to the comments just to see the meltdown from the doom monger brigade who always seem to know exactly what is needed. I’m sure they think military spending and planning is just like buying lego sets.
Not all of us!
Of course not all.
Admittedly we are all arm chair admirals, generals and Air Marshals, however in my experience the vast majority who post on here are well informed people who do not take defence for granted.
Speaking for myself, when the senior politicians and heads of the armed force tell us with one breath to prepare for war and on the other hand we are told that we don’t have a SSN that can go to sea due to lack of maintenance , or yet another frigate is retired. The Ajax saga continues. We are upgrading the Tuphoon , great but it is only a fraction and at a glacial pace ffs. We don’t have enough maritime patrol , we don’t have enough awacs , the GIUK gaps leaks like a sive
I can understand people’s frustration.
Bloody Crewing Issues !!!
Thank God Starmer has put the British defence industry on a “war footing” or else we would see no movement and endless delays to major and minor projects….oh we are. I don’t think the liberal elites favourite human rights advocate can bring himself to buy nasty things for defence so he has told the increasingly ludicrous Healey to kick everything he can down the road to a time they are no longer going to be responsible for all this.
I know right. He’s had a whole 19 months now and it’s shocking that he hasn’t completely overhauled the UK’s approach to the military isn’t it. Unbelievable.
Assume an easy cut to save money.
“Every little helps.”
Wa this meant to replace Echo and Enterprise?
And will hydrographic capability now be gapped and just left to wither like so much else on the RN side?
Scott and Magpie remain but we know full well that they fulfil very different requirements.
Ecco and enterprise were a couple of key cuts that went under the radar.. 3000-4000 ton very very good vessels only 20 years old.. a couple of ships that could have been turned into very good general purpose vessels.. stick a 40mm for self protection on them and equipment them with air and sub surface drones and they would have been perfect patrol and hydrographic vessels..
Ah but we do have Stirling Castle, she’s In and out of Portland all the time now !
So maybe they realised that there is a lot of smoke an mirrors going on with autonomous systems and drones in naval conflict.. far far to much has been taken from Ukraine which is a green water naval conflict in an enclosed benign sea that is at no point more than 150km from land and the AI companies have been promising far beyond what AI can deliver especially in very complex dynamic environments.
I hope that this means the RN is starting to give its head wobble and realise autonomous systems are not a replacement for crewed vessels, just an adjunct that can be used in specific ways.
China is in reality the nation with the most operational experience of autonomous vessels. With Zhi Fei operating and carrying cargo since 2022, Zhuhai Yun as an uncrewed research vessel, Jindouyun 0 Hao a little green water cargo hauler that has been operational since 2019 and JARI USV a 500 general purpose combatants that has been working up concepts since 2018..
But with all that testing over 8 years of operations, china has not started serial production of a drone combatant and you can be sure if China though the concept was sound.. it would have 500 of the things floating around the chains seas before your could say the worlds complete sea control.. also every drone ship china has produced has also been optionally crewed.. they all have a bridge and some form of crew accommodation.. because they know from experience even drone ships are better crewed unless you really don’t need or want the crew.
So I have no issue with the RN coming up with a future optionally crewed combatant of say 2000-3000 tones that can act as a patrol ship with a small crew or an uncrewed support vessel for a naval task group ( essentially a down threat trip wire come victim)… in reality it’s going to be a decade away and not replace actual warships….
Not enough Action Men to man it