Royal Navy Drops a Drone Boat Out of a Plane

As naval forces begin to get used to the idea of unmanned surface vessels and put together a concept of operations for how to use them, some unusual experiments were bound to crop up - and inevitably, someone would end up dropping them out of an aircraft. The Royal Navy recently air-dropped a 28-foot surveillance boat from an A400 transport aircraft into the waters of the North Sea, and did it four times in a row to make sure it would work

A favorite technique of pararescue teams, special forces and air force logistics professionals, extracted-load air drops combine long range with speed and flexibility, requiring little time to mobilize and execute. Launched over water, air-dropped drone boats could have useful applications in irregular warfare, surveillance, maritime strike and other creative roles. The Royal Navy decided to explore that possibility with manufacturer Kraken, the maker of the K3 Scout small patrol boat. Kraken supplied a Scout built to the RN's specifications, along with an airdrop kit; the Scout was loaded onto a universal airdrop sled for boats; the Royal Air Force put it on an A400M transport; and the aircrew dropped it from 1,300 feet in waters of up to sea state four. They repeated the test four times in six working days, reusing the same boat and the same platform.

"One of the limitations of small Uncrewed Surface Vehicles is their ability to self-deploy and so we are actively looking at concepts for deployment from motherships or ‘mother aircraft,'" explained Royal Navy's Capt. Adam Ballard, a member of an R&D program dubbed Project Beehive. "Since the earliest aircraft carriers and seaplane tenders we have become accustomed to air power deploying from maritime power. We are now moving to a future where maritime power can be deployed from air power."

Other operators are also testing the possibilities of unmanned operations. This week alone, U.S. Central Command just trialed an unmanned surface vessel in a one-way attack role for the first time, striking a pier and a mini-submarine at the port of Bandar Abbas using a trio of Saronic Corsair drone boats. The U.S. Navy just undertook its first USV "underway replenishment" from a Splash Industries Typhoon drone cargo boat. And Ukrainian forces just conducted a world-first unmanned "amphibious assault" by delivering a wheeled fighting drone onto the contested Kinburn Spit with a mini-landing craft drone.