The Royal Navy’s new 1st Autonomous Squadron will begin with coastal defence, using uncrewed boats to watch Britain’s approaches and protect critical infrastructure, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord, has said, according to the Royal Navy.
Speaking on board HMS Prince of Wales at the International Sea Power Conference in Oslo, Jenkins said: “For the first time, autonomy has a permanent operational home in the Fleet.” He went on: “At its heart will be our fleet of Kraken scouts.
“The Squadron’s first task will be coastal defence, using uncrewed vessels to monitor our approaches, protect critical infrastructure and respond more quickly to hostile activity.” He described the squadron and the new Capability Accelerator Hub in Portsmouth as two parts of the same system, saying: “One accelerates the Hybrid capability. The other takes it to the fight.”
The squadron was commissioned at HMNB Portsmouth last week, with around 180 personnel split into two watches, and replaces Project Beehive.
It will initially operate Rattler training vessels and Kraken K3 Scouts, which reach 55 knots and have a range of up to 1,100 miles. Jenkins said the Krakens will be fitted with a counter-drone capability in the new year, and the first 20 Krakens were delivered in April.
Put a pointy prong thing sticking out the front, and they could be used to pop any big rubber boats that get in the way.
(Just kidding, by the way).
Might be the cynic in me but i do wonder if this push to “watch Britain’s approaches and protect critical infrastructure” has anything to do with the state of the surface fleet. Maybe we’ll be losing more Frigates before their replacements are ready and replacing with “our fleet of Kraken scouts”. I just can’t see these being any sort of deterrent to adversaries. I might poke fun at the skimmers but a big grey warship sends a very powerful message.
Looks good if your protecting a flat calm lake. Wonder what the maximum operating sea state is? By its length probably sea state 5 maximum, so only good in fair weather. Smacks of the hype around hydrofoils and the HMS Speedy debacle.