Special Report: UK testing industry platforms as part of Hybrid Navy

Acua Ocean's Pioneer USV. The craft was used during Royal Navy Atlantic Net trials in early 2026. (Acua Ocean)

The UK's Royal Navy (RN) said on 22 April 2026 that its capabilities for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) had progressed earlier in the year after successful demonstrations with companies providing unmanned maritime technology.

The RN invited various small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to trial equipment that could be used for underwater sensing, as autonomous platforms, for weapons deployment, or as digital architecture as part of its Atlantic Net Technology Demonstrator (ANTD) project. Atlantic Net sits under the overarching Atlantic Bastion programme, to create a future manned-unmanned ASW sensor and effector network in the North Atlantic. Companies demonstrated their commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology in various trials running over the course of four months from January 2026, said the RN.

The equipment included seabed acoustic detection systems, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with acoustic and towed arrays, remote operation and AI integration, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) deploying sonobuoys, autonomous and remotely-operated unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and acoustic floats.

Captain Chris Hill, Atlantic Net programme director, said that the trials focused on automation, sensor performance and AI, and sought to assess the technology providers' readiness to produce rapidly and at scale.

Hybrid navy

Speaking on 29 April, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff General Sir Gwyn Jenkins defined the RN's future Hybrid Navy concept as “a mix of crewed, uncrewed and autonomous platforms. It encompasses our traditional air, surface and subsurface platforms fighting with and alongside drones and other cutting-edge weapon systems.”