Royal Navy stands up first autonomous boat squadron
Britain’s Royal Navy has formally commissioned its first uncrewed boat squadron, operating seaborne drones on front-line operations as part of its “Hybrid Navy” strategy.
Key points
- Speaking at the launch of the autonomous squadron, Fleet Commander Vice-Admiral Steve Moorhouse hailed it as an historic occasion, but warned that the seas are becoming more contested, more dangerous and harder to operate in.
- The force is understood to be using both Kraken’s K3 Scout, and the SM400 from SYOS Aerospace, known by the Royal Navy as the Rattler.
- The force says the 1 st Autonomous Squadron officially entered active service on November 5 at a ceremony in Portsmouth Naval Base.
This active squadron replaces Project Beehive, the navy’s experimental program to build a fleet of autonomous and remotely operated vessels, through which it obtained 20 uncrewed boats from UK-based Kraken Technology Group.
Additional details
- Last week, the force also launched strike drones from one of its aircraft carriers for the first time.
- The Rattler boat is 7.2 m and has a 500 kg modular bay, with a range of up to 950 nautical miles.
- The K3 Scout is an 8.4 m boat capable of 55 knots and can carry a payload of up to 600 kg.
- Nyan one-way drones made by BAE Systems were launched from the deck, as well as a Tekever AR5 fixed-wing uncrewed aircraft, the same kind the British Army has selected to replace its troublesome Watchkeeper fleet.
- Titania is the second satellite in the UK’s growing constellation of military satellites in orbit, following the launch of Tyche in October, and will be operated by UK Space Command as part of the ISTARI* program.
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