Royal Navy tests uncrewed boats in warship escort drill

November 4, 2025, by Fatima Bahtić

The Royal Navy has tested five remotely controlled boats in a warship escort exercise off the coast of Scotland, demonstrating the use of uncrewed vessels. Operators aboard XV Patrick Blackett have controlled the boats from 500 miles away, coordinating them with helicopters and manned warships.

A real-life scenario of escorting a warship was played out during 72 hours of training off the coast of Scotland.

While on board XV Patrick Blackett, sitting alongside in HMNB Portsmouth, sailors, Royal Marines and Army personnel remotely piloted five of the boats as they sailed in Scotland 500 miles away.

The demonstration saw the vessels work with P2000 HMS Biter of the Coastal Forces Squadron, a Merlin helicopter, HMS Tyne and HMS Stirling Castle in a proof of concept exercise.

With cameras, sensors and other data being fed back to Patrick Blackett, the Rattlers were able to successfully and safely escort Tyne and Stirling Castle, who were playing the role of foreign warships.

The demonstration was a culmination of months of trials for the navy’s Disruptive Capabilities and Technology Office (DCTO) and the Fleet Experimentation Squadron (FXS), while the project of procuring the boats saw the Royal Navy adopt a radical new approach with industry.

In a matter of weeks, they took the idea of the custom-built, fully crewless vessels and delivered them – with training and first sea trials taking place shortly after.

The officials noted that this is the first time the Royal Navy has procured a fleet of customised uncrewed surface vessels, with the short turnaround time for delivery showing its intent going forward.

Based on a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) and with autonomy packages and a variety of other systems and services, the boats have been built and iterated to meet Royal Navy specifications.

Unlike previous drones operated by the navy they have been designed to be fully uncrewed. Each vessel can operate individually or as part of a swarm. They can be pre-programmed with mission profiles, navigational routes and can work together as a ‘wolf pack’ on operations. In time they will be able to operate without direct human control.

Each vessel is operated by a two-person team: one responsible for piloting the drone, the other monitoring and operating the onboard systems and assisting to manage the live data streams. The entire setup is fully portable, run via a “plug and play” laptop configuration, allowing easy, flexible and full operation from various fixed and mobile locations.

Before heading to Scotland, the drones operated without fanfare from their base port of Portsmouth and have been zipping through the waters of the Solent and Portland.

“These USVs have been built and developed at pace, in a ground-breaking way, alongside a coalition of fantastic local companies this has been the most exciting project of my career. These platforms will be used alongside and in support of existing and future warships and as a capability in their own right. It is a technology that will continue to develop and it will fundamentally change the way we fight,” Commander Michael Hutchinson, Commanding Officer of both the newly formed Fleet Experimental Squadron and Experimental Vessel Patrick Blackett, said.

This project forms part of the Royal Navy’s broader push into uncrewed and autonomous systems as part of a Hybrid Navy. XV Patrick Blackett is paving the way for autonomous warship operations, while XV Excalibur is working as a testbed for future underwater warfare.