RN Project Cabot and Atlantic Bastion

[Kirkhill]

Brought to you by inquiring minds and @PHughes

Up front, I have no backfground in ASW, but this recent RCN submarine RFI situation is making it a topic of interest.

Just a very preliminary search and a topic that comes up a lot is the impact of stealth on submarine design and the combination of AI and UUV in submarine hunting

Any pointers to appropriate websites/articles to flesh out this topic area is appreciated

This caught my attention

Silent waters, smart war: how AI is reshaping anti-submarine warfare - Navy Lookout

In this guest article, Tom Rooney considers the impact of uncrewed systems and artificial intelligence on the undersea battle. In the quiet expanse of the North Atlantic, an old strategic contest is being redrawn. Once the domain of Cold War cat-and-mouse games, the world of submarines has...

www.navylookout.com

......

Which brings up RN Project Cabot and the Atlantic Bastion

UK sets out Project CABOT ambition to deploy autonomous ASW screen in the North Atlantic - Naval News

The Royal Navy plans to use autonomous systems to deliver a deployable anti-submarine warfare search capability in the North Atlantic

www.navalnews.com

And a whole bunch of associated thoughts

 

[Kirkhill]

Related platforms

Leonardo unveils design of Proteus Uncrewed Rotorcraft Technology Demonstrator

Leonardo, the Royal Navy and the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Future Capability Innovation (FCI) team have unveiled the design of the Proteus technology demonstrator aircraft.

uk.leonardo.com

XV Patrick Blackett - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Royal Navy name Project CETUS XLUUV, ‘Excalibur’

The Royal Navy will use its XLUUV Project CETUS demonstrator, named Excalibur, as a testbed for underwater autonomy and a payload carrier.

www.naval-technology.com

AUKUS exercise sees Royal Navy uncrewed submarine controlled from across the world

The Royal Navy successfully tested the ability to communicate with Experimental Vessel (XV) Excalibur, the Royal Navy’s Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV), while submerged on the other side of the world.

www.royalnavy.mod.uk

HMS Stirling Castle (M01) | Royal Navy

HMS Stirling Castle is a crucial part of the Royal Navy moving from traditional minehunting to embracing cutting-edge technology to take our people out of the minefield and replace them with remotely-operated and autonomous systems.

www.royalnavy.mod.uk

Entering the chat

Type 92 Sloop USV to be defined speculation that it is a 40 m craft like the Blackett.
Type 93 XLUUV Cetus maybe or possibly Ghost Shark.

And an interesting chat.

Type 92 Sloops and Type 93 UUV's - UK Defence Forum

ukdefenceforum.net

 

[Kirkhill]

Also in the news

Norway to buy British frigates in $14 billion deal

The U.K.-built Type-26 warship design won against competing offers from the U.S., Germany and France.

www.defensenews.com

Scottish shipyard may build frigates for Sweden and Denmark

The UK is working on prospective shipbuilding orders centred on Babcock’s Type 31 frigate built at Rosyth, joining Norway’s recent intention to procure Type 26 frigates built in Glasgow.

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

First Look at Poland's new Miecznik Frigate - Naval News

A visualization of Babcock's Arrowhead-140PL design was unveiled last week at a press conference hosted by the consortium PGZ MIECZNIK.

www.navalnews.com

.....

Denmark builds 2x Absalon Command and Support ships
Denmark builds 3x Iver Huitfeld AAW ships based on the Absalon hull
UK builds 5x Type 31 for RN based on Danish ships
UK sells 3x Type 31 variants to Poland
Denmark relegates 3 x AAW ships to patrol duties
Norway buys 5x Type 31 from UK
Denmark negotiating to buy 3x UK built Type 31s
Sweden negotiating to buy 4x UK built Type 31s

Potentially that would see a fleet of 21 Absalon / Type 31 variants and sisters operating in the GIUK Gap - North Sea - Baltic Area.

This would be on top of Norway's Nansens and the RN's 6x Type 45s and 8x Type 26s.

An interesting backup to the UUV/USV screen proposed.

.....

Canada to add up to 15 Type 26 variants (minus those deployed to the Pacific) and up to 12x Arctic capable corvettes.

 

[Kirkhill]

On the submarine front

RN - 4x Vanguard SSBN
RN - 7x Astute SSN
Norway - 6x T212
Denmark - under consideration
Sweden - 5x domestic builds
Canada - 12x under consideration.

 

[Kirkhill]

Left out - the Dutch contribution to the North Atlantic
My error.

 

[Kirkhill]

Final linkage

Canadian Coast Guard converted to a DND agency. In that it joins with the CAF and the CSE. The CSE is independent of the CAF as the CCG seems set to be.

....

Atlantic Bastion looks to be predicated on maintaining an extensive infrastructure of unmanned sensors with a strong focus on securing civilian strategic assets like undersea pipelines, powerlines and fibre-optics cables.

Those skill sets are largely to be found in the CCG.

Maintenance of lightships, navigation aids and hydrography are all CCG specialties. Adding unmanned systems to secure pipe lines and detect submarines, UUVs, USVs, UAVs does seem to be a more logical ask of the CCG than the RCN.

Seaspans 16 arctic capable MMVs, along with breakers and 2x AOPS are likely to be very busy.