A crewless boat has been driven around the Solent and remotely controlled from a Royal Navy vessel in a first in UK waters.
As disclosed, a Pacific 24 rigid-inflatable craft, Autonomous PACific (APAC), was both remotely and autonomously piloted from experimentation ship XV Patrick Blackett while the pair sailed off the coast of Portsmouth.
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The week-long trials pushed the uncrewed vessel to its limits with rough seas and even snow testing its systems and software in a range of operational scenarios, according to the officials.
The autonomous tests saw the boat pre-programmed to follow certain maneuvers and directions while the remotely piloted tests saw it controlled by a Royal Marine using a console on board the ship.
With cameras and sensors on board, the robot rib fed back a live camera feed to control units and computers on XV Patrick Blackett which could then be analyzed, the navy added.
Other sensors and weapons could be added to further enhance its use as a vessel for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations with data fed back in real-time.
The APAC was already trialed at sea abroad, and this was the first time it’s been done in home waters and through the busy waterways of Portsmouth Harbour.
The trials were run by the Royal Navy’s autonomous experts NavyX, who have previously trialed the APAC in Portugal with NATO partners at Exercise Repmus.
“Integrating crewed and uncrewed systems and operating them at the same time is a huge step forward for the Royal Navy. This is the first time a fully autonomous and crewless boat has been operated in UK waters and we have achieved this throughout the week in different conditions and completing a range of tests,” Commander Michael Hutchinson , commanding officer of XV Patrick Blackett and part of the NavyX team, said.
“It forms the backbone for further integration that future ships will have with autonomous technology. The trials and experiments we do will develop the Standard Operating Procedures for the APAC and how to use uncrewed systems effectively for warfighting.”
The Royal Navy added that an autonomous rib could be deployed to do recces, as a force protector against threats and even to launch weapons – minimizing the risk to sailors who might otherwise be tasked with those missions.
“We want other ships and boats to be used to that and we can keep pushing the message that we can do it and we can do it safely. This is what XV Patrick Blackett is for. It’s a trials and evaluation ships that can develop operating manuals for technology and see what works, what doesn’t and how we get it ready for further use by the Fleet,” Hutchinson added.
In 2022, the Royal Navy unveiled XV Patrick Blackett, a new testbed ship to support trials of the latest tech and autonomous systems. The vessel was built by Damen Shipyards and delivered at a ceremony held at Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth on July 29, 2024.