UK plans to build at least six new drone command warships, first deliveries from early 2030s

The Ministry of Defence has announced that Britain will build a fleet of hybrid warships designed to command uncrewed systems across the air, surface, and subsurface domains. At least six new Common Combat Vessels will be ordered to replace the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers and the planned Type 83 class.

Key Features of the Common Combat Vessel

• Described as the Royal Navy's first hybrid warship
• Acts as a control hub coordinating drones in all three domains to deliver air defence
• First ships expected from the early 2030s
• Will form the crewed core of a far larger mixed force

Once in service, the vessels will operate alongside eight Type 26 and five Type 31 frigates, as well as a new family of uncrewed platforms:

• Type 91 – missile platform
• Type 92 – underwater sensing platform
• Type 93 – extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle
• Type 94 – sensor platform

The Ministry of Defence described this as "a once in a generation investment in maritime capability." Funding in the Defence Investment Plan allows the National Armaments Director Group to begin the design work that underpins the change.

Ministerial Statements

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis cast the new class as built for a harder operating environment, 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," with programmes funded through the plan expected to sustain tens of thousands of jobs.

The department said the shift away from concentrating capability in a few large, expensive hulls would extend the Navy's "reach, resilience and firepower without a proportional increase in crew or cost."

Strategic Context

The programme is also intended to anchor three new Atlantic efforts:

• Atlantic Bastion
• Atlantic Shield
• Atlantic Strike

These are designed to counter Russian activity in the North Atlantic and High North, protect undersea infrastructure, and strengthen NATO deterrence. Ministers pointed to export potential in the adaptable design, noting that the Type 26 frigate has already been selected by Australia, Canada, and Norway.

Background on Type 83 and Type 45

The Type 83 had long been identified as the successor to the six Type 45 air defence destroyers, which are due to leave service by the end of 2038, but it never advanced beyond an early concept within the Future Air Dominance System.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Parliament earlier this year that approximately £1 million had been spent on platform-specific design over three financial years, part of roughly £6.9 million of wider work, and that the concept had been inherited in an underdeveloped state. The existing destroyers have been troubled by propulsion faults traced to a design flaw in their gas turbines, with one ship, HMS Daring, having not put to sea for more than 3,000 days.

Industry Responses

BAE Systems

At DSEI 2025, UK Defence Journal reported that BAE Systems set out a system-of-systems vision built around a large Air Warfare Command Ship carrying sensors, missile batteries, guns, and directed-energy weapons, paired with smaller, adaptable combatants. One concept, based on the Triton trimaran demonstrator, was shown as a lean-crewed sensor and effector platform with full autonomy under study.

Design lead Gavin Rudgley said reduced crewing would come through "automation, autonomy and the embodiment of artificial intelligence." Geoff Searle said the firm was modernising its combat management system under the Re-Code contract to build the "foundation of the sovereign core" capability. BAE representatives confirmed that evolving the future ship from the Type 26 frigate was one option under review, with one official calling the proven design "an obvious thing to build on."

Babcock

A rival approach has come from Babcock, which previously pitched its Type 31 frigate for the role. Under a concept called ARMOR Force, the company would turn the Type 31 into a controlling node for a fleet of large autonomous surface vessels built by US shipbuilder HII. The system would disperse anti-submarine, air defence, and strike capability across wide stretches of ocean using swappable containerised payloads handled at its Rosyth yard.

Babcock described the proposal as the industrial answer to the First Sea Lord's call for a hybrid navy and a direct enabler of the same Atlantic Bastion, Atlantic Shield, and Atlantic Strike programmes. Chief Executive Sir Nick Hine described ARMOR Force as "our response to the First Sea Lord's call for a re-imagined Hybrid Navy."