- MoD seeks an industry “Platform Authority” to manage Royal Navy maritime drones
- Aim: shape Hybrid Fleet/Type 9X concepts and future procurement approach
- Big gaps remain on tech readiness, timelines, and supply-chain concerns
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is seeking an industry partner to act as Platform Authority for the development of the Royal Navy’s future concept of operations for maritime autonomous systems, likely to include the Type 9X plan under the so-called ‘Hybrid Fleet’ aspirations.
In a Request for Information (RfI) published on 5 August, the UK MoD sought to outline initial interest and expertise in the provision of a Platform Authority provision by industry for a Royal Navy requirement relating to “current and future” maritime autonomous systems (MAS).
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Among the desired outcomes, the RfI would serve to “enable the authority to develop a future procurement and commercial strategy that delivers value for money and supports defence objectives”.
Any future Platform Authority would be tasked with the overarching responsibility for the integration and through-life management of a platform, including equipment, personnel, training, doctrine, and logistics.
Specifically, the Authority would: integrate systems, equipment and training at platform level, ensure the ‘system-of-systems’ works and is safe, maintain the certification and safety case for the platform, and provide operating limits and safety information to Commanding Officers.
However, these are still the early days in the creation of a Royal Navy ecosystem for the future ‘Hybrid Fleet’, with a subsequent Stage 2 including an Industry Engagement Day in Portsmouth for further discussion, followed by another ‘Detailed Market Engagement Day’ in a subsequent third stage.
According to the MoD, post early engagement, the desired outcome is to “rapidly prototype, test, and deploy advanced technologies in support of live maritime operations”.
Concerns mount around UK naval plans
Questions around the technology needed for autonomous capabilities planned to be introduced into the Royal Navy in the years ahead remain unanswered, with the RfI indicating that issues such as doctrine and logistical requirements are still to be determined.
As previously reported by Naval Technology, specific capabilities such as the missile launch systems needed for the Type 91 autonomous arsenal ship likely do not exist yet in the market.
The Type 9X family of USV is being developed to replace the planned Type 83 air defence destroyers, which were cut from the recently published Defence Investment Plan.
In addition, analysis of a recent pipeline notice for a medium USV testbed requirement to test new technologies, likely for the Type 9X series of uncrewed systems, indicates the timeline likely pushes platform fielding beyond the stated 2030 initial entry into service.
Over the weekend, controversy hit another UK uncrewed naval programme, following reporting from The Telegraph that the new K3 Kraken USVs had been delivered with Chinese components.
