British Engineers Demonstrate UK’s First Autonomous Submarine for Military Use

The sub will be able to patrol far longer than a crewed vessel.

The BAE/UK Herne vessel.
The BAE/UK Herne vessel.
BAE Systems

A team of British engineers based in Portsmouth has successfully demonstrated a new type of autonomous submarine, developed specifically for military use, off the south coast of England.

The vessel, called Herne, is what is known as an extra large autonomous underwater vehicle (XLAUV) and has been configured by BAE Systems to enable militaries to monitor and help protect underwater infrastructure across the vast expanses of the seabed, support anti-submarine warfare and provide another means for them to undertake covert surveillance missions.

The trials earlier this month saw the craft conduct a pre-programed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, powered by Nautomate, the Company’s platform agnostic high specification autonomous military control system. This follows successful trials of the technology on a surface vessel earlier this year.

Able to be fitted to existing or new build vessels, Nautomate gives users a cost effective option to boost their autonomous capabilities, allowing them to operate with greater scale, endurance and persistence, whilst removing the need for human crews to operate in arduous or dangerous conditions. This can free up skilled personnel to focus on the tasks where people add most value.

An added benefit of underwater autonomy is that, without the need to resupply or carry life support systems, Herne will be able to patrol the sub surface domain for far longer than a crewed alternative.

It can also be upgraded as new technology or ways of working evolve by using open architecture mission plug-ins.

Now that the technology has been successfully demonstrated, the BAE Systems team will continue to refine Herne with further trials, depending on customer requirements.

More in Operations