Who needs sailors anyway?

[Kirkhill]

That more or less defeats the purpose, no?

I don't think so. One "frigate" becomes its own task force.

4 to 6 LUSV at 80 to 100 m
A couple of XLUUV.
A field self propelled sailing and gliding (underwater) sensors.

Risk is not eliminated but it is radically reduced.

Could be wrong. But that it is what I am taking from the info available.

 

[GR66]

Looks like China might be first out of the gate with an un-crewed Arsenal Ship...

China building new semi-submersible missile carrier

China is developing what appears to be a new generation of combat vessel that may operate without a crew, according to the report from Naval News. The mysterious ship, currently under construction at the Huangpu shipyard in Guangzhou, is believed

defence-blog.com

It will be interesting to see if this is a one-off prototype for testing or if we start to see serial production.

 

[Kirkhill]

Uncrewed schooners with Mk70 launched Tomahawks....

Lockheed invests in Saildrone to arm USVs

Larger Saildrone designs are being developed to support heavier payloads, including a Mk70 vertical launch system and thin line towed arrays.

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

 

[Kirkhill]

Austal and the Aussies cruising on ....

Austal Shows Vantage Drones, AROS Controller At INDOPAC 2025

Austal Australia revealed the Vantage-range of surface drones and the AROS command and control suite at Indopacific 2025 in Sydney this week.

www.navalnews.com

 

[Kirkhill]

Perhaps those Aussie solutions are the answer to some of the problems described here.

The Royal Navy is giving up one thing in which it led the world. I hope it can recover

There aren’t that many things the US Navy needs help with. This is one of them

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Perhaps those Aussie solutions are the answer to some of the problems described here.

The Royal Navy is giving up one thing in which it led the world. I hope it can recover

There aren’t that many things the US Navy needs help with. This is one of them

www.telegraph.co.uk

Sounds like you are trying to marry a specific type of remote control vessel (the Austal line) to a generic method of carrying out mine counter measures (the mother ship/UAV/USV concept of operation).

The Brits already have their "drones" and control system to carry out MCM remote ops from a mother ship. Their problem is that they are divesting themselves of the old type MCM vessels before the new "mother ship" MCM vessels come into service, thus reducing their capability in this form of naval warfare to nearly only poor old HMS Stirling Castle - a civilian ship taken from trade, originally only to demonstrate proof of concept, develop tactics and build up trade knowledge base.

It's that gap in capability due to poor succession planning that is being decried - not the absence of proper technology.

Sounds familiar?