Frank Gardner: Naval plans reflect a sea change in how wars are fought

It is to change the way the Royal Navy operates over the next few years. Britain’s six Type 45 destroyers, designed for air defense, will no longer be replaced by the planned Type 83 version.

Instead, the Navy is acquiring a fleet of cheap joint-combat ships that can serve as hubs for unmanned ships or drones.

The change is long overdue but now forms part of the revised Defense Investment Plan (DIP) being unveiled by the government this week.

It’s called hybridization – an autonomous system that combines traditional manned weapons platforms like frigates with unmanned ships.

In the case of the Royal Navy, it will start maintaining frigates, which will be upgraded with new versions in the pipeline. But the yet-to-be-built large, powerful and expensive Type 83 destroyers are now being phased out in favor of drones.

Drones come in a variety of shapes and sizes and these marines have been deployed more lethally on the Donbas battlefield than the smaller, cheaper quadcopters.

Instead, to counter the threat from Russian submarines and “research” vessels that have been deploying in the North Atlantic and taking an unhealthy interest in vulnerable undersea cables, including trillions of dollars in transactions that carry more than 90% of the UK’s data, nearly 100 meters long.

The Royal Marines, part of the Royal Navy, have been allocated around £500m for fast commando insertion craft and strike drones as part of the Rapid Response Force.

The plans being discussed are controversial to say the least.

John Healy He resigned as defense secretary this month. In response to protests that the government is not spending enough to protect Britain from current threats, mainly from Russia.

Haley’s resignation was quickly followed by Defense Secretary Al Carnes for similar reasons, with reports of a £28bn gap in Britain’s defense budget and plans to fill a further £13.5bn.