Frank Gardner: Navy Plans Reflect a Sea Change in How Wars Are Fought

The Royal Navy of Britain is about to change the way it fights at sea. Instead of building large, expensive destroyers, the Navy will now use smaller ships that control fleets of drones. This plan is part of a new government defence strategy announced this week, and it shows how modern warfare is quickly changing.

Britain had planned to replace its six Type 45 destroyers — ships built for air defence — with even bigger Type 83 destroyers. Those plans have now been scrapped. In their place, the Navy will receive several cheaper ships called Common Combat Vessels. These ships will act as hubs, directing large groups of uncrewed drone vessels across the ocean.

This approach is known as 'hybridisation.' It means mixing traditional crewed warships, like frigates, with fleets of drones and autonomous systems. The Navy will keep its frigates and upgrade them over time. But the powerful and costly Type 83 destroyers, which had not yet been built, are now cancelled in favour of drone technology.

Naval drones are very different from the small quadcopters used on battlefields like those in Ukraine. These new sea drones are nearly 100 metres long. They will patrol the North Atlantic Ocean to watch for threats from Russian submarines and spy ships. Russia has shown a worrying interest in undersea cables that carry more than 90% of Britain's data, including trillions of dollars in financial transactions.

The Royal Marines, who are part of the Royal Navy, are also getting about £500 million. This money will pay for fast Commando Insertion Craft and strike drones. Together, these will form part of a new Rapid Response Force that can act quickly in a crisis.

These plans have caused controversy and even cost some leaders their jobs. John Healey resigned as defence secretary, saying the government was not spending enough to keep Britain safe from threats, mainly from Russia. Al Carns, the armed forces minister, also resigned for the same reasons. There is a reported £28 billion gap in Britain's defence budget, with an extra £13.5 billion set aside to help close it.

The new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, spent two weeks updating the Defence Investment Plan. He focused on lessons learned from recent conflicts in Ukraine and around the Strait of Hormuz. Ukraine's small navy surprised the world by pushing back Russia's powerful Black Sea Fleet using clever drone technology on, above, and below the water's surface.

In a recent conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's forces used just a handful of cheap, easy-to-hide drones to keep threatening shipping lanes. Defence planners took note. These real-world examples showed that small, affordable drones can be very powerful against much larger traditional forces.

Expert Bob Sawers, from the Audere Group, said this shift shows that defence must change to keep up with modern threats. He explained that the winners will be those who can deliver military power quickly, grow it affordably, and adapt as dangers change. His view is that old ways of buying weapons are losing ground to faster, more flexible approaches.

Still, some experts are not fully convinced. Former Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe said bluntly that the changes are 'cost-cutting, no doubt.' He did say the Navy's new plan could be a good one, since spreading out firepower across many drones makes sense in today's world. But he warned that drones cannot do everything, and the technology needed to make this system work will likely cost about the same as the cancelled Type 83 destroyers anyway.