The UK’s mine countermeasure operations have taken a significant step forward with the debut trials of a minehunting ‘mothership’ and autonomous vessels.
For the first time, three boats joined RFA Stirling Castle marking a critical milestone in the integration of autonomous minehunting systems within the navy.
The Royal Navy Motor Boats Apollo, Hydra and Hazard were trialled alongside the recently-purchased Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship. The trials, carried out in collaboration with Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), the procurement arm of the Ministry of Defence, aimed to demonstrate that autonomous vessels could be hosted on board Stirling Castle and eventually be controlled or remotely piloted from the ship.
“Using autonomous and uncrewed equipment removes the threat to naval personnel by keeping them well away from the minefield, leaving robots systems to do the legwork. It also allows more extensive searches of the sea,” the press release stated.
Rear Admiral Ivan Finn, Director Navy Acquisition, highlighted the significance of the trials, “These trials mark a key milestone in the delivery of the Royal Navy’s Mine Hunting Capability programme. We can now look forward to having Maritime Autonomous Systems permanently embarked and ready for operations over the coming months.”
The Maritime Autonomous Systems Trials Team (MASTT) oversaw the week-long trials on Stirling Castle. Lieutenant Commander Jason Munson, Officer in Charge of MASTT, expressed satisfaction with the initial integration of ship and autonomous boats. He stated, “The trials marked a significant milestone in the Mine Hunting Capability Programme. Operating from a host platform will allow our autonomous vessels to be used in a wider range of environments.”
Sorry these are good stop gap, but would be better to get fingers out build new littoral strike shops in whatever format for booties and repurpose the bays as motherships for mcm drones etc, with the large welldeck and storage area for workshop’s/storage would be great, put rub on deck can carry wildcat and/or UAV’s for surface surveillance.
The helipad looks totally unsafe. Any railings up there? You’d get blown off or slide off in rough weather. Agree with you, why not get something specifically designed as a MCM Mothership, BMT have the Venari 85 (which could be stretched) and the Dutch and Belgians have a joint design which the UK could have joined in on.
Never had railings on the Stena or Bar Protector, Diligence, down the Falklands. Even with Chinnook ops. Mind you it did take a lump outta the marisat dome. (crabs, bless) 😵 👍
Sterling Castle £40m, Belgian vessels Euro 1bn for 6
Agree. These commercially designed vessels are potentially much much more cost effective. Just as long as they can do the job, the RFA/ RN could really do with massively expanding the concept.
These trials are therefore vital. Money saved on not purchasing new MCM vessels can then go into very large numbers of drones and all the other required hardware.
A fleet of say 8-9 of these mother ships might in theory deliver the same effect as 15-20 dedicated MCM vessels.
DMJ wrote:
“”Sterling Castle £40m, Belgian vessels Euro 1bn for 6″”]
Actually the cost to Belguim for just the “RV Belgica ” launched in 2020 came in at €54 Million
The helo pad is ally to save on top weight and its civvy spec. They are common on OSV and other offshore vessels. They are for flying people on an off only. Funnily enough we (My yard) have just constructed and fitted the same sort of thing to a rig conversion this month. Apparently, the powers that be did consider removing it when the project started and the RFA started to get involved with crewing it up. Some of the people I know where involved with Sterling and Proteus from day one. (Way before it was announced in the press).… Read more »
Don’t think intend to use helipad, according to article on Navy Lookout it’s not rated for military helicopters so only time maybe Medevac, i think said might even remove?
Echo and enterprise dont have the deck space or the crane. The 11m Workboats are close up big bits of kit. I stood next to Harrier whilst it was out doing warm weather trials. It aint small!
I thought they had helipad systems that clamped it down.
Called a Beartrap?
Is that system fitted to this ship? It is a civilian built vessel that’s been bought by the navy.
The navy doesn’t have a lot of helicopters so it’s not going to be carrying one around. It’s perhaps handy to keep for winching to/from, drones etc.
No idea !
They are apparently on the market for selling on and a couple of Foreign navy’s are interested in them for converting to OPV type vessels.
depends I suppose on what you are willing to spend on equipment and the conversion
For mine hunting and hydrographic survey repurposed oil industry vessels are superior in a permissive environment. For mine clearance in a contest environment a frigate is better.
Jim that just means duplicating capabilities! with all these remote drones ideally need mothership to be able to protect the area they are working, putting Artisan and 32 Sea Ceptor on the bays would give you large capabilities, for litteral group it double with the storage they can also increase amount of equip being transported into theatre, deploy mcm to clear approaches then pumload addition supplies for the assault force after landing
It’s replacing a larger fleet of single use very expensive warships with a distributed system able to operate off expensive general purpose warships or very cheap commercial vessels.
I don’t see the duplication to be honest although would depend on numbers acquired of any such mothership platform and the additional tasks they can perform I.e. sea bed monitoring.
Why, if its acting in a military role isn’t she painted grey?
Paul, read article on Navy Lookout has loads of info
Need more. I’d read of the Castle Class being of 4 vessels. No idea how accurate that is?
A thought. What checks for mines before the Mothership arrives and off loads the RNMBs?
Certainly possible. I have heard 4 as well.
Stirling Castle has a number of sister ships operated by Island Offshore. One could quite easily build a fleet of ships with a similar spec (helps with training, certification, spares, familiarisation etc). It looks like some of the other ships aren’t as well equipped as Stirling Castle, so that would have to be resolved.
Of course, that’s assuming the MOD is looking at the Island class as a viable option to reach 4 ships.
I’m encouraged then if that is your info too mate.
Wondering in future fighting ships will carry minesweeping UUVs in their miision bays. It would give them some ability to transit mined areas independently.
Bow medium range sonars such as 2050 etc do have a mine detection capability for moored mines but for finding deepwater ground mines, risers etc you need dedicated MCM assets.
Sweeping quick but not 100%
Hunting slow and pretty much 100%
However, you first need to find the field where they are laid. For that you need side scan sonar UwAV . After that you can begin to either deal with the mines or go somewhere else.
We haven’t had minesweepers since the Hunts lost that Combined Influence Sweep System in the 90s… (a system I was the level 3/4 base maintainer for in Portsmouth on 2 occasions) and were made minehunters.
Sandowns are done. Whilst being excellent at what they do they are too expensive in money and crew to keep running. Hunts are not long for this world either for the same reasons. You can do the same with Stirling Castle cheaper and for longer on station.
They would never keep up. Downhill with the wind behind them and a sail up you would be lucky to get to 12-15 knts. They would mechanically knacker themselves, need RAS every couple of days for Water and fuel and food and the crew would be threaders. You would still need an FSU embarked on something with a Container city to support them in spare parts and technical assistance.
The logistical support needed would be out of all proportion to what you achieved.
Drone boats with offboard systems launched from motherships are the future of MCM.