A new 500-tonne ‘Special Purpose Vessel’ will arrive in Portsmouth next month to be prepared for her role as a trials platform.

Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, asked:

“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the Special Purpose Vessel is expected to be operational.”

Jeremy Quin, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, responded:

“The Special Purpose Vessel is currently scheduled to arrive in Portsmouth in late July 2022. She will then be prepared for her role as a trials platform.”

As I reported previously, the vessel of around 500 tonnes will be procured through a £9m contract and will support trials for “autonomy development”.

The contract specifications describe a steel vessel with a draught of 3.5m, top speed of 20 knots, a range of 2500 nautical miles, a crew of 6 and with the ability to tow small boats such as RHIBs.

In addition, the vessel is expected to have a crane and a working deck able to accommodate 2×40 foot ISO containers or 2x 20-foot ISO containers.

While the vessel will also be expected to be autonomous in future, the contract specification makes clear that the functional integration of technology provided to enable the autonomous behaviours of the platform are excluded from this current contract but that the contractor should support the physical integration of this equipment in future.

The statement of requirements are relatively vague but do state that NavyX (that’s the part of the Royal Navy that typically deals with experimental projects like this) require a small ‘Fast Crew Vessel’ style ship to serve as a testbed and trials ship for the Royal Navy.

The vessel is expected to be transferred to the Royal Navy by the 31st of March 2022.

What’s the list of specs?

The vessel should not have had any previous owners other than the vessel’s builder (or other owner while vessel is in build only). The vessel should already exist and be suitable for ownership to transfer in the timelines given below.
Vessel length less than 48m LOA
A speed of 20 knots be achievable in light displacement
A fuel range of 2500 nautical miles at most efficient speed should be achievable
Vessel to have a gross tonnage of less than 500 GT.
The vessel should have a maximum draft of 3.5m.
The vessel can berth and unberth unaided from its nominated berth.
The vessel should be capable of towing small vessels (such as 12m RHIB).
The vessel’s primary machinery (prime movers, gearboxes, rudders etc) will where possible be controlled using digital interfaces.
The vessel will have a digital autopilot system.
Primary hull structure should be steel. Other materials can be used elsewhere in the vessel (for example superstructure).
The vessel be able to provide electrical power to the aft deck.
The vessel be able to be modified to provide fresh water to the deck.
The vessel be able to be fitted with a crane suitable of lifting 3.5 tonnes at 4.5m of distance.
The working deck be at least 120m2.
The working deck be able to accommodate 2×40 foot ISO containers or 2x 20-foot ISO containers.
The vessel is to have an open stern of suitable strength for the deployment of vessel appropriate equipment over the stern.
The working deck shall have a load carrying capacity of at least 2 tonne/m2.

An example I’ve used to illustrate the type of vessel above is somewhat of a close match to the requirements, it’s a ‘Fast Crew Boat’ from Strategic Marine. You can read more about it here to give you a taste of what the finished product could look like.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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110 COMMENTS

  1. I’m guessing these will be used for the Persistent Operational Deployment System (PODS) as well as drones.

  2. Good to hear that this project hasn’t died since it was first announced. If nothing else, it should give insights into how to rapidly integrate stuft vessels into the fleet.

    • I wonder what ship they got. I thought it would be difficult as it says has to be unused but built or in build. Maybe ship yards do build ships in hopes of finding a buyer later. I know nothing of this area. From the news they must have a ship.

      • My guess is that they had a suitable candidate lined up and the tender was purely to stay within the legal requirements.

      • It’s a merchant design, for offshore industry, quite a small one, no doubt the docks had another contract fall through and sold it on to next bidder.

      • The Tender description is to detail and would suggest that a Hull had been sourced or more like a cancelled order, for a support vessel that could meet these requirements.

  3. Or perhaps an autonomous vessel for detecting ( via drones), a rubber dinghy, hooking it up and taking it back from whence it came….

    Might I venture HMS Golden Retriever….

  4. Was anyone else disturbingly excited to read the headline ? Have to say the article was a slight disappointment but still embarrassingly happy. 😳

      • Don’t mention ” the special Operation” JohninMk will magically turn up like the shop keeper in Mr Ben.

        • Well if it was Arkwright you could understand the Russian logistical problems with getting hold of four candles?

        • Maybe it will be used too break the blockade and free the trapped Grain ships of odessa well it did say Special ops in the headline that should give Kudos to Boris John

          • TOO yrue JohanThey’ve probable shipped the grain to China too grease their palms with a cash flow and yes those Grain Silos will be destroyed and of course it will be classed as Ukrainian Asov guerrilla Sabotage, not Liberating Federation peacekeepers who would never do anything to the Civilan inferstructer our hands are Clean as Peacekeepers yeah right

    • Yeh, its a trials vessel. So unlikely to carry any weapons as it will probably host mixed navy / civilian trials teams from time to time.

      Also as it is a civilian vessel taken into the fleet it will not be built to naval standards so only civilian damage control capabilities – definately not want you want in a fight..!

      I think George got a bit carried away with the battery of 3x 50cal machine guns on the foredeck rail 😃

      Nevertheless, a trials ship in the RN gives a strongh signal that the RN is serious about getting new drones of all types into service. They need it as they are playing catch up.

      Cheers CR

    • David. It shows how desperate the RN hull numbers have become when we all get excited about the prospect of any and every new vessel. This ship could be a future dreadnought moment. Heralding in a brave new world of drones. Unmanned mine clearance. Unmanned sub surface patrol. Unmanned surface patrol and interception. Unmanned fast attack. UAVs etc. All courtesy of PODS. The exciting issue for me would be what a fleet of 30 or 50 such vessels could deliver in terms of operational capability costing just £9 million each. So 50 of these or 1 type 32? There is a beauty in large numbers of networked integrated vessels each covering a domain of naval warfare.
      Such a fleet would be hard to knock out as distributed.

        • R and D is 4yrs of head scratching ,mass’s of paperwork then screwing all the results up and throwing it in the bin and Shouting “Next” and into day’s working from home era it won’t be long for building boats in your Basement whoops

  5. Publicity for a covert vessel.
    The picture looks like it might blend in with the oligarch yachts, is that the mission?

  8. Is Portsmouth the only base in the UK ?
    It seems so as everything seems to go there to be commissioned or de-commissioned
    And if you read the media even back 40 years ago all ships who went south left from Porstmouth

    • No, but it is the main base for Surface Fleet and MCM’s, also the home of FOST and DERA (QinetiQ) is local.

    • Chin up mate, I know you carry the flag for Devonport.

      Basic training, Amphibs & RM, ASW escorts, much of FOST, and survey vessels are still down at Devonport or in the Plymouth area.

      With a vastly smaller RN most of the rest bar the silent service and the FAA is indeed around Pompey, with the Fleet HQ, so maybe that’s why it gets most coverage?

      • And Plymouth has just built and sent an autonomous vessel across the Atlantic
        Not only that How do you think all the ships that get refitted get sorted out with electronics?

    • 21s were Guzz based , Barry and some of the Leanders, Pompey had the Carriers Landing ships DLGs, 42s, 82, and some Leanders it’s just nearer for the News crews from London too get their Pictures Marchwood had the RFA Roundtable Class no one bothered filming them but 40 yrs later Today infact the Local BBC had a film crew there for a memorial service for Galahad and Tristrum

      • I was on RFA Regent and we left Plymouth at the same time as HMS Ardent along with a sub of which i dont know the name of
        As we were slipping the cable from the buoy (and still had a barge alonside us still loading) the Ardent sent a message of to us (by morse light ) saying something on the lines of “Good luck in the S Atlantic” and we know what happend then

        • Thanks Barry ,very poignant Last night on BBC South today they interviewed the Captain of the Galahad really felt for him poor man

        • Weymouth took a hit when we pulled out ,Along with Chatham .I don’t think k holiday makers can match Jack on a run ashore ,

  9. This will be good learning for both the T32 and the new minewarfare vessels. As well as improving the utility of the type 31s and Rivers. Good to see the RN going all guns for what will be a seminal moment in Navel warfare. I see unmanned autonomous vehicles as being as great a step change in navel warfare as the introduction of navel air power or the reciprocating stream engine.

  10. George, the link to the Strategic Marine page is now 404 and their website no longer carries the image you used. I wonder if there’s anything to be read into that?

      • And a teleporter to beam them all directly to Rwanda. Utterly disgusting.
        Simple answer is to extradite them all back to France from whence they came.

        • Build a wall. Build a wall. Or big water cannons on the coast. Knock a migrant off a boat and win a teddy. Put up a big wheel, waltzers it’s a day out for the family. Obviously would have rescue boats we are not animals. They throw a ring an tow them to France at a rate of knots. Drop them 50m off the beach.
          Ive got another crazy idea. Labour shortage in the U.K. for certain areas. Ask a migrant/asylum seeker what skills they have. Give them some training/familiarisation training and trial. If they can do it ok they can stay while in the labour market. After a set time (3-20 years) of working they can stay permanently.

          • buy and adapt a fishing boat from grimsby rig it as a mine layer and ow a field off calais

    • Yes literally a personnel transfer and Rescue vessel so would be ideal fit. The border force also have new high capacity passenger vessels this year.

  15. Sorry, I have to bring this up again. Those multiple gun mounts look silly and are unprotected below the gun line. Why not a RWS on the front?

    • It’s just an example image from a company in Singapore! People in this site always seem to jump to conclusions when such images are used in articles.

      • The number of guns is totally stupid! The rest is fine. If you go to the Strategic Marine website above and look under Military Vessels you’ll see where this image comes from. The only thing that’s different is the colour scheme and the guns. Leave the guns off would be better. Sorry, it just gets up my goat!

    • I think that’s explained by this sentence:

      “Predominantly, the following programmes and projects will be delivered by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), but partners in industry and academia will be crucial to delivery with significant funding available and opportunities to collaborate.”

      • It’s the academia part that worries me just recently there was a report that China has bought considerable influence with in UK universities.

  17. Ao the Royal Navy bought a small coastal merchant vessel, manned it like Merchant Navy with 6 crew and then called it autonomous. Merchant navy has been doing minimum manning for decades.

    • this new gadget, that new fantasy vessel, but still no warshipcomissioned. is the money going to the right places?

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