Navy plans new safety authority for uncrewed vessels

The Royal Navy is seeking industry input on establishing a Platform Authority for maritime uncrewed systems, intended to provide the governance, engineering expertise, certification support and through-life assurance needed to operate current and future capabilities safely, according to a preliminary market engagement notice published by the Ministry of Defence.

The notice, published on 5 August, is a UK2 preliminary market engagement notice, meaning no competition has opened and no contract has been awarded. A tender notice is estimated for 20 August, and the engagement deadline for responses is 19 August.

Documents seen by the UK Defence Journal set out the intent behind the exercise, as the request for information is explicit that it is not a formal tender competition or a commitment to any future contract, but an opportunity for industry to inform the development of future requirements.

According to those documents, the Navy wants to build its understanding of the maritime autonomous systems market, including suppliers, delivery models and supporting organisations, and to gather industry views on the challenges, risks and concerns associated with the proposed requirement. The responses are intended to help refine the requirement, the operating model and a future statement of requirement, and to shape a procurement and commercial strategy.

A significant point emerges on how the authority would be staffed as the documents indicate that while the Platform Authority position itself must be held by a crown servant, supporting organisations will be needed to supply workforce and expertise for it to function. Suppliers are being asked whether they could contribute personnel on a temporary or secondment basis, and to identify existing contracts or frameworks through which such staff could be provided.

The current request for information is the first stage, after which the Ministry of Defence intends to down-select organisations to attend an industry engagement day in Portsmouth, where the proposed construct, potential governance and operating models would be discussed in more detail.

The notice lists the requirement as particularly suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises and for voluntary, community and social enterprises. The contracting authority is based at Whale Island in Portsmouth, and the classifications attached to the notice cover uncrewed underwater vehicles and engineering services.

The move is a response to a major problem facing navies as they adopt autonomous systems quickly. Existing safety and certification regimes were built around crewed warships, and questions of who certifies an uncrewed vessel as safe to operate, and on what basis, have not been fully resolved anywhere. A platform authority is the body that owns that judgement across a type’s life, setting the standards a vessel must meet and assuring that it continues to meet them.

The Royal Navy has been expanding its uncrewed inventory across mine countermeasures, hydrographic survey and experimental work, and the Defence Investment Plan set out an intention to field uncrewed platforms in numbers alongside crewed vessels, including designated Type 91 to Type 94 uncrewed systems working with the planned Common Combat Vessel and existing frigates.