Royal Navy unveils concept images for ambitious autonomous fleet

They may seem like something out of The Avengers film franchise, but these ambitious concepts of revolutionary warships are actually part of the Royal Navy's vision of what the British fleet could look like in the future. Detailed proposals for four potential vehicles, created by young engineers, have been released, including a stealth submarine carrier and a huge flying drone station which would be attached to a helium balloon and based in the stratosphere. The idea is that attack drones shaped like conventional airplanes could then be launched from the station'at a moment's notice' before shooting down towards Earth and potentially gliding just beneath the water in a stealth mode and smashing into an enemy ship. The Royal Navy hasn't disclosed anticipated costs of bringing to life the newly-revealed concepts, which have been described as one expert involved in British defence and security operations as very much'in the realm of speculative thinking'. They have been put forward by young engineers from industry and academia as part of a challenge posed by the UK Naval Engineering Science and Technology (UKNEST), aimed at helping the Royal Navy to develop ideas for an autonomous fleet that could shape how it operates over the next 50 years.