Does Royal Navy's Strait of Hormuz deployment mark new era of maritime warfare?

A defence expert believes the Royal Navy's deployment of autonomous minehunting vessels to the Strait of Hormuz marks the beginning of a new era of maritime warfare.

The Beehive system that can deliver high-speed Kraken drone boats as well as surface unmanned minehunters, RNMB Ariadne and RNMB Adventure, are being sent to the Middle East.

Expert in war and strategy at King's College London, Professor Alessio Patalano, believes it marks the beginning of a new era for the service.

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He said: "Anyone who works in defence, in particular in the maritime space, we've been brought up in the shadow of things like warships, or the military balance, where you look at the composition of fleets and you think about warships, fighter jets, submarines.

"And here, where we are on the cusp of, is a moment in which we might actually, 20 years from now, look back and say, 'this was the beginning when we had to start thinking about what makes a fleet in a very different way'."

As well as the autonomous minehunting equipment and counter-drone systems, the UK has pledged to send Typhoon jets and HMS Dragon to secure free navigation for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Prof Patalano added: "Warships were not going to go away, submarines were not going to go away but the way in which we're going to create vessels that are the neurologic center of a teaming up of autonomous, automated and crewed systems is this is the point in time.

"And the next few months of what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz might very well be the operational beginning or when we had to start properly thinking about what that means.

"I think it's going to have an impact that has at three different levels.

"You have the impact on the ground, the difference that it will make to create that sort of level of reassurance for insurance, shipping companies, ship owners, to be able to say, that's fine – we can actually start having the confidence to navigate in transit the straight.

"So you've got the effects generated on the ground – that's a significant element of difference."

A difference on the ground

He went on: "The second one, I think, is also a proof of concept in the sense that these are new sensors and systems, which they've been around for quite some time, but they never really operationally tested at what could be a relatively challenging environment.

"So in that sense, you've got this added layer that is about deploying operationally a set of capabilities that not only makes a difference on the ground, but it also allow you to develop a sense of confidence over the type of technology that you are introducing and that changes the way in which you conduct a particular naval mission.

"And that is the third element or links to the third element of change in the sense that in doing so, you're actually proving that you can have a lighter footprint in the conduct of mine warfare, which is a really time consuming and difficult type of naval task, and one that exposes forces incredibly."

Challenging environment to secure

Securing the Strait of Hormuz presents several challenges with the waterway only 33km wide at its narrowest and shipping lanes restricted to two corridors that are only 3km wide.

Its proximity to a hostile nation and the natural defences of the Iranian coastline also make it a challenging environment to secure.

"It's a strait that is under asymmetric threats with an advantage to the attacker and you have the responsibility of hundreds of ships that have to go through," Prof Patalano said.

"What we're talking about here is like, once we've done that and we've proved the concept, that will really set the stage for lessons to be learned and doctrines to be refined really in years to come.

"The Navy has had to time to put together elements of technology that were coming up over the past few years, what you'll probably find yourself into is a situation whereby in a context where the fleet is not in its most, if you say, spotless point in history.

"This might become an area where generally the Royal Navy find itself leading because it will be one of the first adapters of this new technology, one of the first organisations to dare to bring it together, and testing in such an environment, and might actually for that reason become a really good point of reflection for many others to follow."