The Royal Navy is moving to expand its undersea surveillance reach through the development of miniaturised sonobuoys designed for use with uncrewed air systems, as part of a wider shift towards more autonomous anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
The work is being carried out by Ultra Maritime in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence, alongside the company’s £40 million contract to supply sonobuoys for the Royal Navy’s Merlin Mk2 helicopter force.
While conventional sonobuoys remain central to crewed anti-submarine ops, the miniaturised systems are intended to support smaller platforms and uncrewed aircraft, enabling wider and more persistent coverage of the subsurface environment.
Mini sonobuoys offer the potential to deploy acoustic sensors from a broader range of platforms, including drones that can operate at lower cost and risk than crewed aircraft. This would allow the Royal Navy to distribute sensors across larger areas, maintain surveillance for longer periods, and complicate the operating environment for hostile submarines.
Ultra Maritime has indicated that the work on miniaturised sonobuoys forms part of a broader effort to adapt undersea sensing technologies for future platforms, supporting NATO and allied requirements as well as UK national defence. The company has also expanded its UK manufacturing footprint in recent years.
Hopefully we see moves soon to start using the Protector fleet in the MPA role to augment the P8 fleet. These aircraft are too vulnerable to operate in even a moderately contested environment now and US losses on the MQ9B even against insurgent forces have been high.
However they are perfect for MPA and a secondary AEW capability. It’s seems the sea guardian can now fulfill all the promise of the MQ4C Triton at a fraction of the cost.
If we can get four on a Queen Elizabeth class carrier then we will have a potent addition to our air groups filling in many of the missing pieces and it will be a major vindication of the STOVL carrier concept the UK designed.
2 AEW and 2 MPA drones wowuld be the perfect, affordable addition to each carrier. The advantages of UAVs for AEW have not yet been fully realised, the long loiter time and high altitude performance would more than make up for them mounting a smaller radar than conventional E2 types and for MPA platforms again the range and loiter time would allow the carriers detection range, and therefore reaction time, against submarines to be significantly increased.
2 AEW and 2 MPA Guardians, 4-6 HM1 Merlin and 2 HMA2 would create a very lethal defensive and intelligence bubble against drones and submarines in a way the current rotary wing assets can’t whilst leaving enough tonnage and space free for 24 F-35s with a couple of small refueling type UAVs supporting them easily making the QE class one of the most potent airwings in the world. Supplement the existing systems to make them more lethal and accurate is what the ‘hybrid carrier’ concept should focus on doing not outright being a substitute, we have plenty of space to carry more on the QE class and filling it with off the shelf UAVs doesn’t have to be a multi billion £ project if they spend the money on the correct things.
Protector was just about the only platform repeatedly name-checked in the SDR and it was always in the context of upgrading it for ASW and maritime patrol. I think we can safely say that something of the sort will be included in the DIP because if not, it will ruin any pretence that it has been based on the SDR.
The carriers are a separate problem, it all depends on whether the MQ9B AEW gets selected as a Crowsnest replacement.
All good stuff if it works and we actually do it.
I wonder if there’s a cunning plan developing here? If the drone cover of the High North is effective, we won’t need to send out expensive ships or aircraft on search missions. Just when a contact is made or there is a perceived gap. So, we won’t need so many T26 (maybe 5). Or Poseidon. Or subs.
DIP sorted.
(I joke, of course, but knowing the MOD Think Mode I do worry!)
Is this the Ultra Electronics that HMG also allowed to be sold off?