The Royal Navy has avoided losing a £2.5 million surveillance drone after the aircraft suddenly dropped to just feet above the sea during an autonomous flight off Type 23 frigate HMS Lancaster in the Gulf of Oman.
The uncrewed helicopter Peregrine was hovering at around 18.2 meters astern of the Type 23 frigate at the end of an otherwise routine two-and-a-half-hour patrol focused on counter-narcotics surveillance when the incident occurred.
According to the Royal Navy, the drone, operating in autonomous mode, experienced a computer error that caused an unexpected and rapid descent, bringing it to within one to two feet of the water. At that altitude, any contact with the sea would have resulted in the total loss of the aircraft, it was stated.
Lieutenant Commander Adrian Hill , a flight commander with 700X Naval Air Squadron, intervened by switching the aircraft from autonomous to manual control and recovering it to a safe height before landing it on the ship’s flight deck.
The 200-kg S-100 ‘camcopter’ was developed by Schiebel , an Austrian aerospace company that specializes in advanced unmanned rotorcraft, with additional military sensors/systems installed for operations. At the time of the incident, the platform was still in its testing and evaluation phase aboard HMS Lancaster.
The near-loss was witnessed by two engineers from the Culdrose-based drone squadron, who were observing the landing sequence when the drone unexpectedly began to descend.
While no personnel were at risk, the incident highlighted the vulnerability of early-stage shipborne uncrewed aviation systems and the operational consequences of autonomy or software failures at sea.
The Royal Navy acknowledged that technical issues are not unusual during testing phases but noted that the incident posed a significant risk to both equipment and mission capability.