The UK Royal Navy (RN) is accelerating plans to build increased mass at sea, including by developing uncrewed air systems (UASs) for operation from its two Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers.
A Mojave UAV is pictured onboard the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, during trials in November 2023. The RN is integrating its carrier and UAS capabilities to help accelerate generation of mass at sea. (Crown copyright/UK MoD, 2024)
This includes deploying UAS capabilities for test and evaluation – and demonstration – when second-in-class HMS Prince of Wales leads the UK’s Carrier Strike Group 2025 (CSG25) deployment to the Indo-Pacific region.
Several UAS-focused programmes sit centrally within the RN’s wider maritime aviation transformation plans, Commodore Steve Bolton, the navy’s Deputy Director for Aviation Programmes and Futures – and the senior officer charged with shaping future RN aviation requirements and capability, including uncrewed systems – told SAE Media Group’s Uncrewed Maritime Systems Technology conference in Wokingham, UK on 8 May.
Three key programmes are:
a fixed-wing UAS to replace the carrier-borne, Merlin helicopter-based Crowsnest airborne early warning (AEW) system, which is due to retire at the end of the decade;
the Future Crewed Maritime Air System (FCMAS), which will assess longer-term capability options, beyond the in-service Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, for various tasks including search-and-rescue, joint personnel recovery, and maritime counter-terrorism;
the Vertical Take-Off/Landing Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (VTOL ACP), which aims to develop – in collaboration with crewed aircraft and surface ships – future intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance (ISR), logistics, and strike capabilities, post-Merlin and Wildcat.
VTOL ACP, a near-term priority, will at a tactical level develop UASs that can be launched, recovered, and operated from all current and future RN aviation-capable maritime platforms, and at a strategic level be central to the RN’s transformation from crewed to uncrewed aviation.
Of course, the QEC carriers are fundamental to this transformation. Several UAS systems, including those in these programmes, have been or will be integrated into QEC carrier deployments.
This supports the RN’s aim of using the QEC carriers to build UAS autonomy, endurance, and range, alongside augmenting crewed/uncrewed integration to generate greater aviation persistence including in denied operating environments.
“We seek to exploit the size and capacity of ships such as the QEC carriers, to increase persistence through extended range and endurance.”
Commodore Steve Bolton, Royal Navy’s Deputy Director for Aviation Programmes and Futures
The RN will demonstrate this on CSG25. Cdre Bolton confirmed that the Malloy Aeronautics TRV 150 VTOL uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) – procured initially to provide logistics support for deployed Royal Marines Commando forces – will be trialed from Prince of Wales to deliver short-range, ship-to-ship logistics lift capability for a maritime task group, as part of the Maritime Intra-Theatre Lift (MITL) programme.
“The intention is to develop this capability during the forthcoming CSG25 deployment, to lessen the burden on crewed platforms that can then focus on more complex, high-priority tasking,” said Cdre Bolton. Moreover, he added, “What we’re going to try and do is operate it at the same time as we operate crewed aircraft, which is no mean feat.”
The RN has already demonstrated capability to launch and recover UAVs from a QEC carrier. Under Project ‘Desert Skies’, in November 2023 onboard Prince of Wales off the US East coast, the RN conducted a successful take-off and landing of a General Atomics Mojave UAV (a version of the MQ1C Gray Eagle system).
The test, said Cdre Bolton, was “a highly successful milestone in proving that UASs can seamlessly integrate with QEC carriers, and informed our approach to replacement of Crowsnest.”
Mojave was the largest UAS launched from an RN carrier to that point. However, Cdre Bolton explained that the navy is looking to build on this success to assess options to operate larger short take-off/landing UAVs to provide CSG AEW capability.
Such UAVs will leverage the RN’s existing surface platforms to prove the take-off/landing concept, he added.
Proving the capability off the US coast underlined the role of international partnerships in developing UAV-based capabilities for QEC. “If we can leverage existing fleets and develop international partnerships, there is added benefit of interoperability and interchangeability with our allies,” said Cdre Bolton.
“Through this route, we see the QEC carriers opening up to heavier and faster air vehicles in due course, as and when opportunity allows.”
The QEC design enables consideration of different UAS options.
First, features like the flight deck ski jump enable the launch of larger air vehicles, for example. “We’ve got a deck with a ramp: how do we operate that?” Cdre Bolton asked.
Second, the carriers’ short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) concept of operations offers the RN different flexibility compared to, for example, a carrier fitted with catapults and arrester gear for launch-and-recovery operations.
Such flexibility can include launching aircraft (crewed or uncrewed) while recovering other aircraft (crewed or uncrewed).
The RN operates around 40 UASs, within a wider inventory of around 300 uncrewed systems. The UASs include the Malloy TRV 150, the AeroVironment Puma, QinetiQ’s Banshee Jet 80+, and Peregrine (based on the Schiebel S100 Camcopter).
Cdre Bolton said more vehicles will follow, via the navy’s Heavy Lift Challenge programme, which aims to deliver autonomous airborne re-supply capability, and the Proteus Technical Demonstrator, which focuses on developing uncrewed aviation/surface platform collaboration.
Peregrine is the RN’s first rotary-wing UAS, and brings 24-hour tactical ISR capability for a deployed frigate, augmenting the embarked Wildcat capability.
The RN’s maritime aviation transformation – which is drawing up a blueprint for aviation capability out to 2040 and beyond, and includes transitioning the bulk of logistics, ISR, and strike roles to uncrewed aviation – is focused on core themes that underline and enable UAS contributions to future operations.
These encompass: a threat-led, capability-driven approach, focused on generating effects-based outcomes; using uncrewed systems where possible, and crewed systems where necessary; increased use of automation; use of modular approaches, to allow technology to be introduced and capability to be grown quickly; and to think big, start small, and scale up at pace.
The latter point is key to RN aims to scale up mass, Cdre Bolton explained. “What [uncrewed capability] will do for us is build back mass, and give us the opportunity to stay airborne for longer and reduce the risk to our people.”
“Our aim is to increase combat mass by initially introducing uncrewed systems in an additive manner, to build operating experience, and understand how best to optimise the concept of employment for uncrewed aviation – with or without crewed aircraft teaming,” Cdre Bolton continued.
The transformation from crewed to uncrewed will be shaped by requirements and capabilities. “We seek a phased transition … that is predominantly conditions-based, as opposed to timescale driven. That’s really important,” he added.
“When we talk about scaling up, we’re talking about it in two formats: complexity, and numbers,” Cdre Bolton said. “So, not just the numbers game.”
