“ An autonomous missile ship may successfully navigate thousands of miles without human intervention.”
An autonomous ship/sub is useful as a vessel that can adopt an offensive or defensive posture in a higher risk location.
It should be comparably close to disposable and to have a mothership sitting safely out of range. Disperse them.
A patriot battery can carry 6 shots on a mobile land vehicle. We should be talking that size, or a single tomahawk. Fire and withdraw to reload. Separate radars and missile launchers, like on land. Minesweepers. Minelayers.
A smaller destroyer with 40 launch tubes deploying for 6 months is missing the point. We’re already at the point where a shipping container can hold a drone launching platform.
This is a great read... thanks Richard. We touch on some of the same issues at our Naval Damage Control conferences held annually in Southampton. More details here: https://navyleaders.com/naval-damage-control/
That’s particularly encouraging to hear. One of the motivations for writing the article was my own experience in damage control training, where we learnt that complex systems rarely fail dramatically, but through the gradual accumulation of small faults. I think the Hybrid Navy challenges some of those long-held engineering assumptions, so I’m pleased the article resonated with discussions taking place at your conferences.
“ An autonomous missile ship may successfully navigate thousands of miles without human intervention.”
An autonomous ship/sub is useful as a vessel that can adopt an offensive or defensive posture in a higher risk location.
It should be comparably close to disposable and to have a mothership sitting safely out of range. Disperse them.
A patriot battery can carry 6 shots on a mobile land vehicle. We should be talking that size, or a single tomahawk. Fire and withdraw to reload. Separate radars and missile launchers, like on land. Minesweepers. Minelayers.
A smaller destroyer with 40 launch tubes deploying for 6 months is missing the point. We’re already at the point where a shipping container can hold a drone launching platform.
This is a great read... thanks Richard. We touch on some of the same issues at our Naval Damage Control conferences held annually in Southampton. More details here: https://navyleaders.com/naval-damage-control/
Thank you Simon.
That’s particularly encouraging to hear. One of the motivations for writing the article was my own experience in damage control training, where we learnt that complex systems rarely fail dramatically, but through the gradual accumulation of small faults. I think the Hybrid Navy challenges some of those long-held engineering assumptions, so I’m pleased the article resonated with discussions taking place at your conferences.
We've just put this piece live which might also interest you...
Survivability And Damage Control In A Hybrid Navy
🔗https://navyleaders.com/insight/ndc-2026-survivability-and-damage-control-in-a-hybrid-navy/