Royal Navy chiefs vow to speed up introduction of hi-tech unmanned drones in huge shift for fleet

The promise during a display of future aerial drones on the navy’s primary test bed for future autonomous kit, HMS Prince of Wales.

The Portsmouth-based aircraft carrier has been earmarked to blaze a trail and test all the navy’s latest unmanned drone aircraft.

The Future Maritime Aviation Force display on the 65,000-tonne behemoth’s huge four-acre flight deck brought together experts from the Senior Service, Ministry of Defence and industry to discuss the vision of future drone operations.

It comes as the navy seeks to develop and invest in the latest technology, bringing new, world-beating equipment to the front line quicker.

Brigadier Dan Cheesman, chief technology officer for the Royal Navy, co-hosted the event with Commodore Nick Walker, deputy director naval aviation, and called on military chiefs to consider how future tech and innovation could transform how the navy operates in the skies in the future.

‘The aim is to transition rapidly from what we have now to whatever we want in the future,’ said Brig Cheesman.

‘We live in an exponential world of technological change and if we can integrate the latest and get it on operations, it will deliver battle-winning advantage. Specifically, getting that technology onto ships like HMS Prince of Wales would be a game-changer.

‘We are working in collaboration with companies like the ones here today to understand how they can help us move faster.’

Brig Cheesman added it should be the Royal Navy’s goal that these new capabilities should be delivered in weeks and months, not years and decades as is currently accepted.

SEE ALSO: Illegal raves shut down in Portsmouth

The work of the Royal Navy’s Nelson digital acceleration lab in Portsmouth supports this idea. They have continued the development the ‘plug in and play’ Maritime Autonomous Platform Exploitation (Maple) system that, when integrated onto Royal Navy ships, will simplify the process of accessing and using autonomous and un-crewed technology.

Trials earlier this year in Norway saw this system used on HMS Albion and last year on HMS Argyll.

Commodore Nick Walker, deputy director of navy aviation, supported the importance of the speed of introducing new technology.

Speaking onboard HMS Prince of Wales, he said: ‘When we have drones and other equipment routinely embarked on ships, that’s when we really start to understand what they can do and get an idea of what we can achieve.

‘We have to do it safely, in the right way and coherently, but I want to see the type of kit on display today on front-line operations within the year.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues.

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news and information online.

Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.