A flotilla of uncrewed wolf pack drone boats has successfully been used to escort warships in a Royal Navy and Army trial. The Navy said it was a milestone demonstration of how it could utilise such technology in a real-life scenario. With camera and sensor data being fed back to Patrick Blackett, five 7.2m autonomous Rattler boats safely escorted the two ships playing the role of foreign warships during the 72-hour milestone training exercise, it said. The demonstration was a culmination of months of trials by the Navy's Disruptive Capabilities and Technology Office (DCTO) and the Fleet Experimentation Squadron (FXS). Each of the Rattler boats were operated by a two-person team, with one responsible for piloting the drone and the other monitoring and operating onboard systems, as well as helping to manage live data streams.

When it comes to clearing the ocean of explosives, the British Royal Navy is turning to robots. Announced April 12, the Ministry of Defense is awarding £32 million (about $42 million) to Dorset-based company Atlas Elektronik to give the fleet an "autonomous mine-hunting capability." Employing robots to hunt and clear the sea of naval mines should make waterways useful for military missions and safe for commercial and civilian use afterwards. "The threat posed by sea mines is constantly evolving," said Simon Bollom, CEO of the UK's Defence Equipment and Support Board, in a statement. To meet this changing threat, the Royal Navy is acquiring a total of nine robotic vehicles, equipped with synthetic aperture sonar and advanced software.

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.

A rtificial intelligence (AI) has been used by the Royal Navy at sea for the first time – testing against supersonic missile threats. The research is being led by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) scientists – with the AI being tested on destroyer HMS Dragon and frigate HMS Lancaster. The MoD said the AI improves the early detection of lethal threat, accelerates engagement timelines and provides Royal Navy Commanders with a rapid hazard assessment to select the optimum weapon or measure to counter and destroy the target. "The Royal Navy's use of AI for the first time at sea is an important development in ensuring readiness to tackle threats we may face. The Royal Navy's use of AI for the first time at sea is an important development in ensuring readiness to tackle threats we may face. A rtificial intelligence (AI) has been used by the Royal Navy at sea for the first time – testing against supersonic missile threats. The research is being led by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) scientists – with the AI being tested on destroyer HMS Dragon and frigate HMS Lancaster. The MoD said the AI improves the early detection of lethal threat, accelerates engagement timelines and provides Royal Navy Commanders with a rapid hazard assessment to select the optimum weapon or measure to counter and destroy the target. "The Royal Navy's use of AI for the first time at sea is an important development in ensuring readiness to tackle threats we may face.

The Royal Navy and the US Navy are working on ways to establish links between their digital delivery teams, test methods for international collaboration and develop deeper technical collaboration around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The work, which started in August 2020, is part of a wider initiative to establish better technology cooperations between the US and the UK. It follows a mandate from senior leaders in digital and AI at both organisations, with the objective to "aggressively explore, develop and demonstrate" how the two countries make applications work together in an interoperable way, and how they can interchangeably use each other's technology. A shared long-term vision is that US-UK development squadrons will be created, to develop AI and ML to support fleet operations centres to tactical-level units, and interoperability with joint service partners. Under that mandate, a collaboration plan was devised by Royal Navy Digital Services and the US Navy to look at specific pieces of technology and the methods the organisations use to research, design and build software.

Navy chiefs are planning a fleet of "killer" robot ships which can think for themselves, we can reveal. They will have stealth technology, advanced radar, lasers and rail-guns capable of firing shells at 4,500mph. The vessels will use artificial intelligence – computerised brains – to work out tactics far more quickly than humans. Scientists say they will operate on their own or from a control room on shore – or act as mother ships to a fleet of smaller craft designed to overwhelm conventional ships. The Royal Navy says humans would set the limits of a battle and let the ships do the rest.

The funding aims to revolutionise the way warships make decisions and process thousands of strands of intelligence and data by using Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Nine projects will share an initial £1 million to develop technology and innovative solutions to overcome increasing'information overload' faced by crews as part of DASA's Intelligent Ship – The Next Generation competition. The astonishing pace at which global threats are evolving requires new approaches and fresh-thinking to the way we develop our ideas and technology. The funding will research pioneering projects into how A.I and automation can support our armed forces in their essential day-to-day work. Intelligent Ship is focused on inventive approaches for Human-AI and AI-AI teaming for defence platforms – such as warships, aircraft, and land vehicles – in 2040 and beyond.

The US, China, Russia and the UK are among a growing number of countries that are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as they look to develop a new generation of advanced weapons system. The Pentagon, in the US, has made a commitment to spend $2 billion over the next five years through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Its OFFSET programme, for example, is looking to develop drone swarms comprising of up to 250 unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and/or unmanned ground systems (UGSs) for deployment across a number of diverse and complex environments. In China, there are a growing number of collaborations between defence and academic institutions in the development of AI and machine learning and Tsinghua University has launched the Military-Civil Fusion National Defense Peak Technologies Laboratory to create "a platform for the pursuit of dual-use applications of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence." Russia has gone one step further and is creating a new city named Era, which is devoted entirely to military innovation.

Navies of the future could use technology to allow sailors to work remotely. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality would allow some crew members to work from shore, operating key sections of ships from thousands of miles away. The result could be semiautonomous warships that sail with smaller crews, putting fewer in harm's way. The Telegraph reports that the Royal Navy could use A.I. and VR tech in the future to reduce the size of ship's crews. The principle is similar to that used by unmanned aerial vehicle operators who control drones flying thousands of miles away.

British warships will soon integrate Siri-like voice systems into their controls, according to the head of the UK's Royal Navy. Speaking at the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition -- one the biggest arms fairs in the world -- First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Phillip Jones said the Royal Navy wanted to embrace the speed at which warfare is being transformed by IT, and pointed to new Type-31 frigates as an example. "The Type 31e will feature different app-based tools which can access the ship's data. These will be operated from a series of touchscreen displays, Siri-style voice-controlled assistants and perhaps even augmented reality technology," Jones said. "This is not a gimmick or a fad. As modern warfare becomes ever faster, and ever more data driven, our greatest asset will be the ability to cut through the deluge of information to think and act decisively."