IFRI<\/span><\/a> (France\u2019s international relations institute).<\/p>\nThe RN\u2019s \u2018hybrid navy\u2019 vision was set out in the UK\u2019s 2025 Strategic Defence Review, which detailed aspirations for a future force mix of crewed and uncrewed platforms. One part of this vision is a hybrid carrier airwing comprising crewed fast jets, autonomous collaborative platforms, single-use drones, and long-range missiles; work is also underway to understand the future force mix in both the surface and underwater domains.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Paris on a panel focused on air-sea superiority in contested operational environments, Gen Jenkins said the immediate priority for the \u2018hybrid fleet\u2019 was getting human and machine teaming to work. \u201cThe challenge is how quickly we can bring these autonomous systems in, to fight alongside the fleet,\u201d<\/em> he observed. \u201cThe tech world has taught us how to do this: it\u2019s through incremental introduction and spiral development; it\u2019s through failure and learning from failure in order to bring capability benefit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWhile naval warfare has been re-shaped by technological revolutions on previous occasions, it is the pace at which uncrewed and autonomous systems are iterating that presents the biggest challenge going forward today. According to Gen Jenkins, evidence from the conflict in Ukraine suggests that navies cannot afford to hold back in embracing this change.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur organisations tend to be quite cautious by nature, which I always find ironic because we\u2019re warfighters and risk-takers by nature,\u201d<\/em> he said. \u201cSo, we tend to take an approach which is \u2018well, I\u2019m going to sit back and see how the technology is going to develop, and I will transition at the point that the technology is mature\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s fine in an approach \u2013 as long as you don\u2019t find yourself in a war with somebody who\u2019s already transitioned, because you can\u2019t afford to be in that situation as you will lose at that point,\u201d<\/em> Gen Jenkins continued. \u201cSo, the art in this is understanding where this technology is going and how you can maximize the possibility you don\u2019t lose.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI want to be the force that wins. I don\u2019t want to be the force that is sorry it didn\u2019t make the move early enough.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nGen Jenkins gave examples of how the RN is already integrating crewed\/uncrewed capability in conceptual, organisational, and capability contexts. In a conceptual sense, the Royal Marines Commando Force has been transitioning over the last decade to a hybrid-type force with a focus on distributed operations in support of littoral strike. At an organisational level, the RN is trialling its containerised mission PODS (persistent operational deployment system) capability, seeking to generate capacity to embark different capabilities (including uncrewed systems) onboard crewed and uncrewed platforms. In capability terms, work is underway to introduce a hybrid carrier airwing by the end of the 2020s, with the intention to conduct the first launch of a jet-powered autonomous collaborative platform from an RN carrier in late 2026 or early 2027.<\/p>\n
These examples, and others, illustrate the nature of and need for the \u2018hybrid\u2019 transition.\u201cWe are on the trajectory here, because we have to be \u2026. Every ship has [to be] a drone carrier. It\u2019s a question of scale and what you\u2019re trying to run off it,\u201d<\/em> said Gen Jenkins.<\/p>\nActivity is also underway to accelerate the introduction of uncrewed systems into the surface fleet. Here, the pivot to a hybrid force design is underpinned by a \u2018system of systems\u2019 approach that envisions a digitally enabled, resilient fleet fusing crewed ships with uncrewed and autonomous systems.<\/p>\nUnveiled in 2025 by Babcock with the aim of supporting the Royal Navy, ARMOR Force (Autonomous and Remote, Maritime Operational Response \u2013 Force) is an architecture of disaggregated systems and platforms capable of independent operations and connected by world leading digital capabilities. Babcock image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSpeaking at last September\u2019s DSEI 2025 exhibition, Gen Jenkins revealed his aim to have uncrewed escort ships sailing alongside RN warships within two years, and said that future force design would be guided by the principle of \u201cuncrewed wherever possible, crewed only where necessary\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\nA future force mix study has already looked at different force structure models, recognising both financial pressures and challenges around RN personnel numbers. This study activity \u2013 which has considered the delivery of capability from the perspectives of sense, decide, effect, connect, host, and enable \u2013 has pointed towards a future disaggregated fleet, where functions previously consolidated on a single complex platform may now be spread across a range of crewed and uncrewed vessels.<\/p>\n
Another tenet of the hybrid navy is the move to increase mass through the procurement of less complex platforms. This is expected to provide opportunities for shipyards across the UK.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.navalnews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK Royal Navy (RN) sees its continuing shift to a \u2018hybrid fleet\u2019 as central to prevailing in future conflict, and is focused on accelerating delivery of the maritime uncrewed systems integral to this new \u2018hybrid\u2019 force structure, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff General Sir Gwyn Jenkins has said. Story by Dr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2285552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[442844,384194,442845],"class_list":["post-2285551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-mum-t","tag-royal-navy","tag-unmanned-vehicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Royal-Navy-sees-hybrid-shift-as-central-to-future-force.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2285553,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285551\/revisions\/2285553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2285552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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