As the safety of sea lanes comes into dramatic focus with Iran\u2019s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom\u2019s Royal Navy recently announced it\u2019s purchasing\u00a0a new fleet of\u00a0unmanned\u00a0surface vessels designed in part to \u201ckeep sailors safe on global deployments.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the navy said it would buy 20 K3 Scout Medium USVs made by Kraken Technology Group to be used by the Coastal Forces Squadron and 47 Commando Royal Marines \u201cfor operations, training and development activities to set the foundation for further uses of autonomous uncrewed technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move is part of the navy\u2019s larger Project Beehive, which aims to deliver a \u201cplatform to act as a proving ground for future hybrid navy technologies while also providing an immediate operational capability,\u201d the Royal Navy announcement said.<\/p>\n
Whether such an \u201cimmediate operational capability\u201d could include a deployment, say to the Strait of Hormuz to aid in mine clearing as part of US-Israeli operations against Iran, is unclear. Referring to the Beehive contract, Second Sea Lord Vice Adm. Paul Beattie described how the concept could see the \u201cBeehive capability operate alongside existing crewed and uncrewed systems such as the mine hunting capability.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson declined to comment on any potential operational deployments.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor operational security reasons, specific payloads will not be discussed.\u00a0 However, the flexibility of the K3 allows rapid integration of a large number of different payloads; this will provide operational flexibility for the [Royal Navy],\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe K3 Scout can be operated over Beyond Visual Line of Sight Communications Systems or on local mesh networks.\u00a0This provides a flexible approach to allow independent operations or operations in company with crewed units.\u00a0The craft will be operable from the mission bays of Type 31, Type 26 and other platforms allowing choice of capability for the operational commander,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Kraken, too, declined to comment on any potential deployment to the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Measuring 8.4 meters (27.5 feet) in length and with a maximum displacement of 2,500 kg (5,511 lbs.), the K3 Medium USV is a low-signature craft capable of travelling at speeds up to 55 knots as far as 650 nautical miles. The USV can carry a 600 kg payload with capacity to be repurposed for multiple mission sets, including \u201clogistics, search and rescue, survey, ISR, strike or kinetic\u201d operations, according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoyal Navy and Royal Marines personnel are already under training and we will have an exceptionally capable USV operational in the next few months,\u201d the announcement said.<\/p>\n
To date, Kraken has participated in a variety of MoD and NATO exercises as well as US Special Operations Command innovation cycles. On Nov. 25, Kraken was awarded an OTA by the US SOCOM, worth up to 49 million USD, focused on its surface\/sub-surface uncrewed system, K4 Manta.<\/p>\n
The Royal Navy\u2019s move towards USV technology follows the First Sea Lord Gen. Sir Gwyn Jenkins\u2019 speech at the DSEI expo in London last September in which he said the service will be \u201creimagined\u201d into a \u201cnew hybrid navy [featuring] a dispersed but\u00a0digitally\u00a0connected fleet of crewed,\u00a0uncrewed, and autonomous platforms that will redefine maritime military power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the safety of sea lanes comes into dramatic focus with Iran\u2019s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom\u2019s Royal Navy recently announced it\u2019s purchasing\u00a0a new fleet of\u00a0unmanned\u00a0surface […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[531,530],"class_list":["post-2502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-naval","tag-usv","tag-yk-navy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/UK-NAVY.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2502"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}