Royal Navy cancels Type 83 destroyer, to buy at least six drone command warships

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UK to Buy Drone Command Warships Instead of New Destroyers

Publication date: 2026-06-28 22:26:45

The Royal Navy’s planned Type 83 destroyer has been dropped in favor of at least six new Common Combat Vessels designed to coordinate uncrewed systems in the air, on the surface, and beneath it, under the government’s long-delayed Defence Investment Plan. The Sunday Times was first to report the shift.

A Shift from Destroyers to Hybrid Command Ships

The six Type 45 air defense destroyers currently in service had been due for replacement by the next-generation Type 83 class, a concept that sat within the Future Air Dominance System and never moved beyond an early design phase. In its place, the department stated that the hybrid Common Combat Vessels would deliver more resilient air defense by acting as control hubs for drones across all three domains. The new ships are expected to extend the Navy’s “reach, resilience and firepower without a proportional increase in crew or cost.”

Delivery is expected from the early 2030s, and the ships are to be built in the United Kingdom.

Government and Industry Response

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis, as reported by the Sunday Times, said the new class is a response to a changing threat, stating the vessels would give sailors “hybrid ships that are designed and built for the increasing threats we face.” He added that the ships would be “British-built, supporting jobs across the nation” and would hand the Royal Navy a capability built for modern warfare.

This marks a significant shift from large destroyers towards a distributed fleet, where fewer crewed warships orchestrate networks of autonomous platforms. It aligns with the Hybrid Navy direction set out in last year’s Strategic Defence Review, which spans Project Beehive’s uncrewed surface vessels and AUKUS work on underwater drones. Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, said the full plan would be published within days, telling Sky News the country had to be ready for “any future war,” not the last one.

Background on the Type 83 Program

The Type 83 had long been named as the Type 45’s successor but remained thinly funded. Defence minister Luke Pollard told Parliament earlier this year that around £1 million had gone on platform-specific design over three financial years, part of roughly £6.9 million of broader work under the Future Air Dominance System, and that the concept had been inherited in an underdeveloped state.

Industry Concepts Under Review

BAE Systems Vision

At DSEI 2025, BAE Systems outlined a system-of-systems vision for the future surface fleet. This concept is built around a large Air Warfare Command Ship carrying sensors, missile batteries, guns, and directed-energy weapons, paired with smaller, highly adaptable combatants. One concept, based on the Triton trimaran demonstrator, was shown as a lean-crewed sensor and effector platform fitted with Artisan radar, a 40mm gun, vertical launch cells, and a towed sonar array, with full autonomy under study.

The future Air Warfare Command Ship and its drone escorts

Gavin Rudgley, a BAE design lead, pointed to reduced crewing as a central driver, telling the briefing that lower complements would come through “automation, autonomy and the embodiment of artificial intelligence.” Geoff Searle said the company was modernising its combat management system under the Re-Code contract to create what he called the “foundation of the sovereign core” capability, able to integrate partners, equipment, and uncrewed systems. When asked by UK Defence Journal whether the future ship could evolve from the Type 26 frigate, BAE representatives confirmed it was one option under review, with one official describing the proven design as “an obvious thing to build on.”

Babcock's ARMOR Force Concept

A competing route has come from Babcock, which has previously pitched its Type 31 frigate for the role. Under a concept it calls ARMOR Force, the firm would turn the Type 31 into a controlling node for a fleet of large autonomous surface vessels built by the U.S. shipbuilder HII. This would disperse anti-submarine, air defense, and strike capability across wide areas of ocean. The proposal centers on HII’s ROMULUS family of uncrewed surface vessels, fitted with swappable containerized payloads moved by a modular handling system that Babcock would develop at its Rosyth yard. It is presented as the industrial answer to the First Sea Lord’s call for a Hybrid Navy and an enabler of the Atlantic Bastion, Atlantic Shield, and Atlantic Strike concepts.

Babcock pitches Type 31 frigate as command platform for uncrewed systems

Sir Nick Hine, chief executive of Babcock Marine, described ARMOR Force as “our response to the First Sea Lord’s call for a re-imagined Hybrid Navy,” built on open NATO standards to operate.