A twelve-metre armed uncrewed surface vessel built near Plymouth has been launched carrying MBDA’s Sea Venom anti-ship missile alongside loitering munitions, jammers and surveillance equipment, according to STARK, the defence technology company behind it.
Vanta 12 is described by the company as an AI-enabled modular platform able to integrate missiles, loitering munitions, anti-submarine effectors and electronic warfare systems alongside intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, and it has been designed from the outset for mass production rather than small batch build. The boat can undertake patrols of 1,200 miles, sprint at more than 40 knots and remain continuously at sea for weeks, which STARK says brings the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap, the Baltic and European territorial waters within reach of a single vessel while reducing the number of personnel exposed to danger.
Sea Venom is already in Royal Navy service aboard the Wildcat helicopter, where it is used against fast attack craft and larger surface targets, and MBDA is now working on a version fired from the surface. Andrew Blackburn of MBDA said: “MBDA is developing a surface-launched variant of Sea Venom to meet the growing demand for precision maritime strike in complex littoral environments, to both deter and defeat a wide range of threats. This collaboration with Stark has showcased a potent new capability that is made possible through the integration of a precision weapon system such as Sea Venom onto autonomous maritime platforms such as Vanta 12. Participation in REPMUS 26 is giving both MBDA and Stark a wealth of learning that we can feed forward into the battle-winning capabilities that are needed for future Hybrid Navies.”
The missile is designed to engage targets up to the size of larger warships as well as coastal and land-based targets, including in congested waters where precision matters. Putting it on a boat of this size gives a vessel with no crew aboard the sort of strike capability that until now has come from a helicopter or a frigate.
Vanta 12 spent this week at REPMUS, the NATO exercise in Portugal that serves as the alliance’s largest event for robotics and uncrewed maritime systems, taking part in simulated combat missions and working alongside conventional vessels and other uncrewed boats.
Mike Armstrong, managing director of STARK UK, said: “Vanta 12 is the first unmanned vessel to bring together missiles, loitering munitions and surveillance to help NATO countries face down the threat.
“Vanta is an export success story for British defence, giving our NATO allies capability that can be produced at scale, deployed rapidly and adapted quickly.
“Industrial deterrence is what modern warfare increasingly demands, and what Vanta 12 has been designed to deliver.”
Fred Thomas, the MP for Plymouth Moor View, welcomed the launch in his constituency city. “It is exciting for European security, and also locally for Plymouth as a city, to see STARK launch this uncrewed boat today,” he said, adding: “Built right here in Plymouth, it will be a highly capable addition to Europe’s maritime capabilities. I am particularly excited to see anti-ship missiles, usually fired from helicopters, launch from the boat.”
The company sets the vessel against the pattern of activity now familiar in the North Atlantic and the approaches to European waters, where shadow fleet ships mask their ownership to move sanctioned cargo, transponders are switched off, undersea cables and pipelines are interfered with, and civilian-flagged vessels loiter near critical infrastructure. Around 300 shadow fleet vessels transited British waters in the first quarter of this year, and the Royal Navy interdicted the sanctioned tanker Smyrtos in the Channel in June. Vessels capable of deploying deep-sea submersibles have been sighted repeatedly near the cables carrying Britain’s data and energy.
STARK argues that answering this at scale requires lower cost uncrewed systems rather than warships, an approach it calls the Hybrid Navy and which it says is being taken up by the British, Norwegian and German armed forces. Readers will know the Royal Navy has been moving in that direction for some time, with uncrewed systems trialled for mine countermeasures and seabed monitoring and a hybrid fleet concept running through recent planning.
The company was founded in 2024 in response to operational demands from Ukraine and is headquartered in Berlin, with a presence in Germany, Ukraine, Britain, Sweden and Greece. Its first British manufacturing facility opened at Swindon in November 2025 and employs more than 100 people, and Vanta vessels have already been exported from the United Kingdom to other NATO allies. The maritime division that built and tested Vanta 12 is based in the south west of England.
Now, this really does make sense. Fast and evasive with a real punch. I can imagine swarms of these causing mayhem wherever they are.
Yayyyyy, SL Sea Venom!
These would be really useful in the Gulf, especially if we can diversify the launch platforms further to things like Protector and the Kraken boats.
I agree, best solution is probably a series of drones with smaller sensor drones possibly gun armed being paired with larger missile armed drones operating just over the horizon. Sea venom is the perfect weapon for such employment as it’s more likely to mission kill a platform than sink a ship which is what you want on an autonomous platform. That being said I doubt any Russian warship would survive contact with a firework given how bad their fire safety procedures appear to be.
Was it designed in Plymouth? its it subject to ITAR or export approval?
These seem perfect for both the Falkland’s and trailing Russian ships around the UK coast especially if paired with something small like kraken.