Royal Navy to launch remote controlled next-gen ship
THIS is the shape of war to come — a supership to launch unmanned jets, submarines, tanks and boats by remote control.
By 2020 a new generation fleet of Royal Navy ships will replace tens of thousands of troops on the battlefield.
The Sun has been given exclusive blueprint images of this first prototype.
Dubbed the UXV Combatant — and nicknamed Mothership — the concept has been drawn up by UK arms giant BAE Systems.
It could be in service in 13 years — replacing the current fleet of Type 22 frigates.
The 8,000-ton Mothership is a cross between an aircraft carrier and the Navy’s newest Type 45 destroyer.
Its sleek, stealth design means it only shows up on radar as the size of a small fishing boat. Main weapons systems will be concealed, including the 75-mile range, 155mm gun with precision-guided shells.
Each Mothership could carry up to 24 unmanned vehicles for different combat scenarios.
A handful of the ships could execute a full invasion. Currently, it takes around 20 people to crew and maintain one helicopter.
An unmanned version could be run by five. Manned surface patrol boats need 50 sailors to manage. The remote control prototypes need just ten.
BAE Systems’ ship engineering chief Charles Nisbet said: “There is still a way to go but we have been working across industry and closely with the MoD on the concept, and this is a considered response to their request for designs.”
A senior Navy officer said: “The UXV fits very closely with our thinking. “The next generation of surface ships has to be able to do just about everything.”£4bn carriers for navy may mean cuts in fleet
The first of the 65,000-tonne carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is expected to go into service in 2012, and the second, HMS Prince of Wales, in 2015.
Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the first sea lord, said the decision to build them meant that Britain remained “big boys in the navy league“. 😮The Destruction of the British Navy
One of Europe’s biggest mistakes ever made is that all Western European countries have destroyed their military after the second world war. Before World War II, European countries had the most powerful armies in the world; we ruled the world, Brittania ruled the waves. No matter what happened, and where it happened, European powers were able to intervene.
Slowly but surely, more and more Europeans seem to realize this; this is especially the case is Great Britain
It’s easy to make fun of the Brits, of course, but fact of the matter is that I don’t find this funny at all. Britain once had the most powerful Navy in the world. Labor’s goal seems to have always been to bring it to utter destruction; it has almost succeeded in doing so, if it goes ahead and implements these plans it will succeed. This will not only weaken Britain, it will weaken the West as a whole and the EU. Forget about playing an important role in the world, forget about defending ourselves against possible future attacks, forget about it all. Europe will be handicapped and useless. All we’ll be able to do is to live in our Kantian paradise, hoping everyone will just let us be and live in peace. For if they do not, we can’t do anything about it.
That article looks very low quality to me. And I am rather lost as to why you felt the need to place a smily in it?:confused:
As for the UAV carrier, as far as I know it is a private venture by BAe of the sort that all shipbuilders do every now and again. The liklyhood of an RN procurement is minimal at best. This is not an offical MoD procurement program.
However it is certainly an interesting concept, and if it could carry Taranis sized UCAV’s or larger it may provide a way of diversifying a fleets aerial strike power for Navies that cant afford to operate F-35’s of their amphibious flat-tops.
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