A concept pairing Royal Navy frigates with unmanned surface vessels has been given fresh detail during a recent industry briefing, with HII executive Eric Chewning expanding on this with the UK Defence Journal.
The partnership between Huntington Ingalls Industries and Babcock isn’t new, and neither is the ARMOR Force concept itself, which Babcock has outlined before, but the information provides a glimpse into current thinking.
Chewning described ARMOR Force, standing for Autonomous Robotic Maritime Operational Response Force, as centring on combining crewed warships with groups of autonomous systems operating in coordination. “The idea there is taking a Type 31 frigate, at which Babcock produces the Arrowhead 140, and then pairing that frigate up with a squadron of Romulus USVs,” Chewning said.
He added that the unmanned vessels would carry modular payload systems. “Babcock calls them pods, but it’s the same concept of containerised capability… the Romuluses are able to operate in coordination… working with the Type 31.”
In this kind of setup the frigate would essentially act as a command node while unmanned vessels push sensors, payloads or potentially weapons further forward into more contested areas, extending the reach of the crewed ship without putting more sailors at risk.
Duane Fotheringham, president of unmanned systems at HII, said the Romulus platform is intended to operate ahead of crewed ships. “We see the Romulus USV… being a manned, unmanned teaming partner with frigates, able to put the USVs further into the contested environments and support the frigate.”
No specific timelines, trials or contracted activity linked to the UK were mentioned during the briefing, but the comments do give a reasonable indication of how the existing industrial relationship between the two firms is being applied to future force design questions. The concept sits broadly in line with thinking from the First Sea Lord around a “hybrid fleet” mixing traditional warships with autonomous platforms, and similar approaches are being pursued by the U.S. Navy, pointing to some degree of convergence in how allied navies are approaching distributed maritime operations.
I don’t know why a clever company like Babcock would be jumping in to such an obvious dead end as working with a US defence contractor famed for massive costs and budget over runs that no one in Europe will want to touch.
It all sounds dandy but I don’t know how these USVs operate in anything other than a mild sea state. Who is going to chip crusted salt off the radar array, who is going to give the jammed missile hatch a nudge and who is going to tinker with the engine? How long can a USV stay on station mid Atlantic? They will either have to exceedingly reliable or require recovery and servicing, possibly at sea.
We need fewer US collaborations, not more – the US is moving away from ally status to unreliable neutral at best.
I’d say the US military and industry is as ally friendly as they always been. Its just the crap that’s coming out of the presidents mouth that suggests otherwise. He may change his tune after the midterms.