The Ministry of Defence is progressing with its plans to boost its inventory of REMUS 300M Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.
This acquisition is valued at £7.8 million and is part of the Royal Navy’s ongoing enhancement of mine-countermeasures (MCM) capabilities.
The REMUS 300M vehicles are integral to enhancing the operational efficacy of the Royal Navy’s Hunt-class MCM vessels, providing a robust ‘find-fix-finish’ capability.
HII’s REMUS 300 model is lauded for its compact, two-person portable design, boasting a depth rating of 305m and the ability to undertake missions of up to 20 hours, contingent upon the size of its lithium-ion battery sections. Capable of reaching speeds of up to 5 knots, the vehicle offers enhanced modularity and payload flexibility, say its builders.
The REMUS 300 emerged from a rigorous two-year rapid prototyping process, involving extensive user evaluations and developments, and was subsequently confirmed as the US Navy’s next-generation small UUV programme, named Lionfish, in March 2022.
Prior to this, in October 2022, the Royal Navy had commissioned an initial set of six REMUS 300 vehicles from HII, valued at £8 million. These vehicles were delivered to the UK last year.
That is good, but the RN does need the manned platforms to launch and recover these drones…I wonder if it’s something the rivers will be able to do in the future..it would be a good potential role for them…moving forward when they are no longer filling the hole in the escort fleet….good cranes, good size decks, long range and reasonable sea keeping due to size and the ability to take shipping containers..means they could be really useful in this sort of low intensity drone usage.
I’m still not seeing the rivers being replaced with frigates. The new frigate orders only cover what frigates was already in service. With the slow build rate of the type 26, the 31s will probably be required to fill in the gaps.
The 23s are falling apart faster than expected it seems so perhaps won’t last long enough until all the new ships enter service.
By the time the majority of the frigates enter service the rivers will perhaps be at retirement age.
With 5 x 31s forward deployed that leaves 8 maximum frigates for everything else. Taking in maintenance etc it’s not much.
Another few frigates would help alot
Why wait until ships fall further apart? They could purchase a few more T31s and even another T26 while both types in build.
Should be looking for some multirole small platform for OPV and MCM as well as survey roles
Maybe a T31 type MCM version of the A140?
Isn’t there a requirement for four mother ship type vessels?
How far from launch platforms can they operate? Are they launched from submarines?
Interesting. What’s the payload. Could this be adapted to a find fix destroy ussv to attack dockyards?
At 5 knots maximum? i don’t think so.
They can check underwater fixed targets and own cables, maybe have a sensor but not much more.
Enhancing the Capabilites of the Hunt class Mcms how many Hunts have we left Chids in the Bangor sorry Gulf are the Remus akin too the Old Paps e405s but Autonomous rather than wire controlled real world testing should be undertaken Black Sea grain route is a thought
One less due to todays news, I guess by the size of the hole its a write-off
There be no black masking tape left on board by now that for sure