Why The Royal Navy is Adding 20 New Hybrid “Drone Ships” To Its Arsenal

Okay, these drone ships aren’t a “hybrid” like a Toyota Prius, but The Royal Navy just put a number on its next big jump into a semi-autonomous fleet: twenty Unmanned Surface Vessels, or USVs, under a program called Project Beehive.

These vessels won’t replace manned vessels like frigates or destroyers. Instead, they will act as experimental workhorses that let the Navy trial new sensors, autonomy stacks, and tactics at sea without putting sailors’ lives on the line.

What are These 20 “Drone Ships”?

Project Beehive is a joint effort between the Royal Navy and UK Defence Innovation to deliver twenty USVs to the SURFLOT, or surface fleet. The program budget is around ten million pounds, with the contract expected to run from 2026 to 2028.

Project Beehive calls for a fleet of 20 USVs to be delivered at Technology Readiness Level 4–5. These systems will be proven prototypes rather than paper concepts, with hardware already validated in labs or real-world trials.

The Ministry of Defence wants to go with a modular design, so the Navy can bolt on new payloads and software as the technology evolves. That means each hull can act as a floating test rig for future equipment. Over time, the same platform could be used to trial:

• New radar and electro-optical sensors
• Electronic Warfare (EW) and communications gear
• Mine-hunting payloads and towered SONAR
• Autonomous navigation and “swarm” behavior/targeting systems

Most of the work will be based in south/southwestern England, where a growing cluster of maritime tech companies are already supporting projects like the Royal Navy’s Rattler USV swarm and mine-hunting systems.

How They Differ from Crewed Vessels

Traditional patrol vessels are designed around onboard human operators. They need life-preserving measures, safety equipment, and enough space for a crew to operate onboard.

When you’re dealing with USVs, you can leave out the human cargo aspect of the design process.

Because there are no sailors on board, these drone ships can be smaller, cheaper, and more expendable. They can push into mined waters, contested chokepoints, or hostile territory where a manned ship would be too valuable to risk.

The Navy’s recent Rattler trials gave a preview of what that looks like in practice. Seven 7.2-meter inflatable boats fitted with autonomy kits were controlled from 500 miles away, escorting HMS Tyne and other ships off Scotland while operators sat aboard the testbed vessel XV Patrick Blackett in Portsmouth.

The Rattlers can:

• Run pre-programmed routes or be steered in real-time
• Operate alone or in a “swarm”
• Stream video and sensor data back to a Ground Control Station (GCS)

What Will These Drone Ships Be Used For?

The official tender says the 20 USVs will be used for training, tactic development, warfare development, capability development, and operations in and around UK waters. That covers a lot of ground, but a few mission sets stand out.

First, escort and screening. Rattler’s swarm around HMS Tyne was not a publicity stunt; it was a test for uncrewed boats extending a task group’s “bubble” of awareness.

Second, mine countermeasures. Ariadne shows what an uncrewed minehunter can do when paired with advanced AI and sonar. Beehive gives the Royal Navy more hulls to plug into that ecosystem and use the USVs like pawns in a game of chess.

Third, deception and distributed sensing. Because these unmanned vessels are cheaper and modular, they are ideal for acting as radar decoys or electronic warfare outposts. That kind of distributed, expendable capability is exactly what we have seen Ukraine build with its Magura V5 and Sea Baby fleets, which DroneXL has tracked in pieces – like our piece by Haye Kesteloo regarding the $500 Million hit to Russia’s Navy.

DroneXL’s Take

If modern conflicts like the ones between Ukraine/Russia, and Thailand/Cambodia, have taught us anything in the past few years with FPV drones, it’s that low-cost, repeatable and easily-teachable tools are what will always prevail in modern warfare. The Royal Navy isn’t buying twenty sail boats to go cruising on – they’re creating/purchasing 20 platforms that can break, be rewired, and sent back out with new payloads.

Do you think this is a step in the right direction for the Royal Navy, or do you believe this may all just be a waste of time? Let me know below!