Autonomous warfare, an overview
The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed how all branches of the defence establishment thinks about autonomous systems. Cheap, mass-produced drones hunting tanks. Uncrewed surface vessels harassing shipping in harbour. AI-guided loitering munitions selecting targets without a hand on a trigger. What had been a future capability built around complex and expensive weapon systems suddenly became an urgent operational reality check, There is a real need for a range of British Military autonomous systems and development, procurement and strategies have been accelerating hard to keep pace.
The UK now has one of the most ambitious autonomous systems programmes in NATO. A £5 billion investment plan announced in 2026 set out to transform all three services, with an explicit commitment to deploying systems capable of lethal action without per-strike human approval in certain contexts. That is a significant doctrinal step, and it comes alongside a raft of real hardware entering service or on contract. This article maps an introduction to the British Military Autonomous Systems landscape across air, land, and sea. Will ambition be tempered by inertia and costs, or is this exactly what the UK can excel at?
What is the UK strategy?
The 2026 Defence Investment Plan boldly placed British Military autonomous systems at the centre of the UK’s military modernisation effort. The significant £5 billion commitment covers development, procurement, and integration across the armed forces, with a particular emphasis on swarming capability, human-machine teaming, and reducing the cost-per-effect against high-value threats.
The motivating factor is not just Ukraine. The Ministry of Defence has been watching how China and the United States are structuring their uncrewed fleets, and the conclusion drawn in Whitehall is that mass matters. A military built around expensive, complex platforms is vulnerable to being overwhelmed by cheaper autonomous systems fielded in volume. The UK’s (possibly expensive) answer is to pursue both: retain high-end capability while building a volume of lower-cost autonomous systems that can absorb attrition and complicate an adversary’s targeting.
The harsh reality of that attrition figure is that in 2025-2026 Ukraine manufactured 10 million drones, with Zelensky voicing an ambition to double to 20 million. Partly this is Ukraine eyeing the export market to help fund the war effort, however that production volume is almost entirely consumed by the war. FPV drones in particular have an extremely short operational life, often measured in a single mission, so the attrition rate is enormous and the front line absorbs the vast majority of output.
In the air: From Protector to the swarm
Protector RG Mk1
The centrepiece of the RAF’s autonomous air capability is the Protector RG Mk1 (MQ-9B) – check out our quick guide here – which entered service in June 2025 as the world’s first remotely piloted air system certified to fly in non-segregated civilian airspace. That certification, achieved through years of work with the UK Civil Aviation Authority, is significant: it means Protector can operate across the full spectrum of environments without the airspace restrictions that limited its predecessor, Reaper.
Protector carries a multi-mode radar, electro-optical and infrared sensors, and can be armed with Brimstone and Paveway IV munitions. With an endurance of over 40 hours and a satellite communications link, it is designed for the kind of persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and strike missions that would previously have required crewed fast jets or strategic assets. The RAF is acquiring 16 aircraft, based at RAF Waddington.
Tactical and dismounted UAS
Below Protector, the Army operates a range of smaller systems. The Black Hornet nano-UAV, made by the US company Teledyne FLIR, is now standard issue for dismounted infantry sections, giving individual soldiers their own persistent surveillance capability in a device that fits in a breast pocket. The British were actually the first to use the Hornet in conflict in Afghanistan in 2013. Despite being miniscule is size they still carry a hefty price tag of £45,000 to £60,000 per unit, and also being so small have issues in inclement weather and high winds. The AeroVironment hand launched Puma AE provides a step up in range and endurance at the unit level.
The Malloy T-150 has been trialled as a logistics drone, capable of carrying resupply loads to positions that would be too dangerous or inaccessible for conventional vehicles. Lessons from Ukraine have driven interest in this category at pace. Read our story ‘Malloy T-150 Uncrewed Air System gets Royal Marines front line approval’.
Loitering munitions
Loitering munitions, sometimes called “suicide drones” or “kamikaze drones” in the press, have emerged as one of the most tactically significant autonomous air systems of the current era. These drones hover over a target area for minutes or hours without needing immediate target coordinates. The British Army has been evaluating several systems, and the procurement direction points toward building a genuine mass loitering munition capability rather than a token buy. One system is the a one-way effector (OWE) drone/Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) named ‘Bolt‘, shown below on Exercise Northern Star in Finland in May 2026.
Image – UK MOD © Crown copyright 2026
The future: Loyal Wingman and beyond
Looking further ahead, the UK’s future combat air ambitions under GCAP (Global Combat Air Programme) – Read the GCAP quick guide here – include autonomous wingman concepts that would see uncrewed aircraft operating alongside the next-gen crewed fighter. These would extend the sensor reach and weapons capacity of the crewed aircraft while absorbing some of the risk. The timeline for operational capability stretches into the 2030s, but the industrial and doctrinal groundwork is being laid now.
Land: Robots join the Battlegroup
ARX Robotics Gereon UGV
A huge recent development in British Army land autonomy is the contract awarded to the German company ARX Robotics for the Gereon uncrewed ground vehicle, announced in April 2026. Unusually, ARX has established UK manufacturing for the programme, a deliberate choice that reflects both the government’s push for sovereign industrial capability and the Army’s interest in a long-term domestic supply chain for what it expects to be a growing fleet.
The Gereon is a tracked UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) designed to operate alongside infantry, carrying loads, providing additional sensor coverage, or serving as a weapons platform. It is part of the Army’s broader Project RAPSTONE, which is testing how robotic and autonomous systems can be integrated into a standard battlegroup structure. The lessons from RAPSTONE are expected to inform procurement decisions for a much larger fleet.
Digital Concepts Engineering (DCE) X Series
This affordable and customisable tracked UGV was selected to provide the British Army’s first official operational fleet of 15 ground drone Universal Carrier platforms.
Human-Machine teaming experiments
The British Army has been running a series of experiments pairing autonomous ground vehicles with Challenger 2 tanks and armoured infantry. A 2026 exercise demonstrated Challenger tanks operating with accompanying UGVs and aerial drones in a coordinated battlegroup concept, with the autonomous platforms providing forward reconnaissance and obscuring the location of the crewed vehicles.
The Army’s intent is not to replace the soldier but to multiply the effect of each soldier by giving them a persistent robotic presence that can go where it is too dangerous to send a person. It has to be mentioned that this all helps with the problems of recruitment and retention that the armed forces have, although it does present a fresh problem of needing specialist technical skills to maintain and run the autonomous platforms.
Supacat and ARX partnership
Defence vehicle specialist Supacat has partnered with ARX Robotics to develop autonomous ground vehicles tailored to UK requirements, combining ARX’s robotics expertise with Supacat’s track record in building vehicles for British special forces and the wider armed forces. This kind of domestic partnership is exactly what the MoD has been pushing for as it tries to build a resilient UK autonomous systems industry.
Sea: The uncrewed fleet takes shape
The Royal Navy has moved faster than many observers expected in building out its autonomous maritime capability. The combination of mine countermeasures requirements, the lessons of the Black Sea, and a recognition that conventional surface ships are becoming increasingly vulnerable has driven genuine urgency. Their entire future strategy is built around a hybrid navy, we have a look at that is our quick guide to the navy’s Forward Air Defence System (FADS).
Arcims and mine countermeasures
The Atlas Elektronik Arcims (Autonomous Remote Control Influence Minesweeping System) USV is already in service with the Royal Navy and forms the backbone of the service’s autonomous mine countermeasures capability. Operating in conjunction with autonomous underwater vehicles and towed sonar arrays, Arcims can detect, classify, and neutralise mines without putting sailors in a crewed vessel in the threat area.
Rattler USV
The Rattler unmanned surface vessel was put through its paces in Royal Navy trials in late 2025. Designed as a fast, manoeuvrable platform, Rattler was a test bed to evaluate a range of roles including force protection, coastal patrol, and as a decoy or distraction asset in contested waters.
A Rattler Unmanned Surface Vehicle escorts HMS Tyne off the coast of Scotland. UK MOD © Crown copyright 2025
Project BEEHIVE and the Kraken K3
In March 2026, the Royal Navy announced the procurement of 20 Kraken K3 uncrewed surface vessels (click to read our quick guide) under Project BEEHIVE. The K3s are intended to serve as testbeds for future autonomous operations, with the Royal Navy using them to develop the tactics, techniques, and procedures for a mixed crewed-uncrewed fleet. The BEEHIVE designation points to the longer-term vision: a swarm of relatively low-cost autonomous vessels operating in support of, and sometimes instead of, conventional warships. A tangential issue was brought to light recently when investigators found cameras on the vessels that were sending automated “heartbeat” pings to a Chinese IP address, we look at the fear of Chinese components phoning home here.
XV Excalibur (project Cetus XLUUV)
Perhaps the most ambitious platform in the Royal Navy’s autonomous pipeline is XV Excalibur, the extra large autonomous underwater vehicle that emerged from Project Cetus. Named in a nod to British legend, Excalibur is intended to be a long-endurance submarine-like system capable of conducting intelligence gathering, surveillance, and potentially other missions over extended periods without a crew. The Royal Navy’s purchase of its first uncrewed submarine marks a genuine step change in the service’s approach to undersea warfare.
Teledyne Marine Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
In April 2026, the Royal Navy awarded Teledyne Marine a contract to expand the service’s fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles, focused on intelligence collection and environmental monitoring. The Teledyne systems will work alongside crewed submarines and surface ships, extending the Navy’s undersea situational awareness. A strategic collaboration between Teledyne and MSubs, a British specialist in unmanned undersea systems, is also developing UK capability in this space.
Doctrine, ethics, and the human in the loop
The UK has been relatively open about its approach to autonomous weapons and the question of human control. The MoD’s position is that a human must be “appropriately in the loop” for lethal decisions, but crucially the 2026 investment plan acknowledged that some systems may be authorised to engage without per-strike human approval in defined circumstances. This is a careful but meaningful shift.
The UK is an active participant in international discussions on autonomous weapons at the UN, and has consistently argued against a blanket ban while supporting the principle that meaningful human control must be maintained. In practice, that debate is becoming more pressing as the capability advances.
The ‘Gamification’ of war
Ukraine has a slightly bizarre Army of Drones Bonus (ADB) programme, through which drone operators earn points for kills of Russian soldiers and destruction of vehicles etc, these build up just like a computer game into credits that can be redeemed for military kit for the operators units. The Conversation has a very good overview of the phenomena that is well worth a read.
What comes next
The trajectory for British Military Autonomous Systems is clear. Every part of the British military is now treating autonomous systems not as a future consideration but as a present operational requirement. The £5 billion investment plan will accelerate procurement, but equally important is the organisational change: developing the doctrine, training, and institutional knowledge to actually use these systems effectively.
Accepting the scale – 10 million drones?
Clearly these autonomous systems need to be built at significant mass – Ukraine is currently producing 10 million drones a year, a scale and pace no NATO country has matched, and the volume that the conflict consumes autonomous systems – mostly FPV drones – is mind boggling. It has led to them attempting to monetise that production capacity as a strategic asset. Whether that model holds post-conflict, and whether European NATO members become significant customers, is a developing story that we will keep our eye on.
The platforms above represent an overview of some of the systems in the current state of play. The quick guides linked from this page go deeper on individual systems. As new programmes are announced and existing ones mature, this overview will be updated to reflect the evolving picture.
This article is part of UK Defence Tech’s Autonomous Systems series. For more detail on individual platforms, see our quick guides linked throughout.
