(See) Future Combat Surface System (FCSS)

[Ottone]

Hier finden sich aktuelle Vorschläge von Atlas UK für ein 15m Boot (was der Größenordnung eines CB90 entspricht), darunter ein 4-fach Starter mit Sea Venom oder NSM, wie auch so einer Art Wiesel 2 Ozelot zu Wasser.

There are still challenges to overcome in making USVs effective weapons and sensor platforms that are safe to operate. The civilian regulatory environment generally requires repeatable, consistent, and predictable behaviours from remotely controlled or autonomous vessels. This is at odds with the need for military systems to sometimes behave unpredictably to maintain tactical advantage.

Moving up the autonomy scale from (level 3) remote human operator to (level 4) full machine operation is a big step

Navy Lookout schreibt:

The UK MoD recently launched project COOKSON, asking industry for proposals for USVs up to 40ft in length that will carry a range of effectors to counter threats such as rotary-wing aircraft and ISR drones.

Im Jahr 2021 hat die britische Marine ein ferngesteuertes 7.5m RIB von BAE getestet:

Control and communication with the RIB is through a line of sight mesh radio which has a maximum useful range of around 15km. Bandwidth is similar to that of the 5G mobile phone network which is adequate for camera feed and controls but radar data has to be processed on board and simplified for transmission back to the ship. [...]

However, there is a long way to go before this can become an operational reality. Uncrewed boats have a complex safety case which is why the majority of trials with autonomous boats conducted so far still have humans on board. Collision avoidance using AIS and Radar is relatively straightforward but the image recognition technology is not yet sufficiently mature or trusted enough to replace the human eye. Avoiding a ship or other boats is relatively simple but a child in a canoe or a floating log might be missed. This sensing capability will also eventually have to work at night or in limited visibility and needs to cope with non-cooperative adversaries in small craft that can’t be picked up on radar.

Another significant hurdle to overcome is the recovery routine. During normal boat recovery, a crewed PAC24 is steered up against the side of the ship and the lifting strop is manually attached. This can be done in up to sea state 5 by a skilled crew but it an extremely complex task for an autonomous system.