Vladimir Putin appears to be spooked by plans for a British autonomous Naval fleet, with affiliated media saying Russia must work to match its capabilities.
A UK Ministry of Defence spokesperson said the North Atlantic are is subject to “continuous and escalating underwater challenges posed by the evolving Russian submarine fleet”.
It pointed to the UK’s £24m automated system contract to develop uncrewed systems gathering acoustic data in counter-submarine operations.
Neil Dee, Senior Naval Platforms Analyst at defence intelligence company Janes, said that uncrewed assets are “an area of increasing focus for navies, not least in terms of critical underwater infrastructure protection.”
However, Dee said the technology is still emerging and that many uncrewed assets would still require human support for things like maintenance.
The UK Government last week announced £2bn new investment in autonomous systems and plans for up to 12 new attack submarines for the Royal Navy.
In November, British engineers successfully tested a new type of autonomous submarine.
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This week’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) – an externally-led analysis into the state of the UK’s Armed Forces – said that the UK must develop a new hybrid Navy using manned and unmanned systems.
Dee said: “Atlantic Bastion is the Royal Navy’s plan to counter Russian submarines in the North Atlantic and includes the deployment of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles operating alongside the Navy’s City (Type 26)-class anti-submarine warfare frigates, which are currently under construction.
“In the future, systems like Excalibur are expected to operate alongside the Royal Navy’s manned frigates and submarines and undertake anti-submarine warfare, infrastructure protection, and intelligence gathering tasks, among others.”
Nato has ‘overwhelming advantage’ in maritime sphere
It stands accused of cutting undersea cables which provide power and internet traffic to Europe, sending spy vessels into the English Channel, and operating a “shadow fleet” of tankers which carry sanctioned oil and conceal their movements and ownerships.
Naval experts Dr Sidharth Kaushal and René Balletta said that Russia views the maritime domain as “critical to the strategic balance – in other words, the capacity to both strike an adversary’s homeland and deflect strikes on Russia itself.”
Should the Kremlin feel threatened by the expansion of uncrewed naval capacity, it may have to divert resources from other military pursuits.
“Investments in deflecting Allied maritime power will prove unavoidable for Russia, and will divert critical resources from its recapitalisation of other joint capabilities,” they said in a paper on Russian naval power.
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