UK sets out Project CABOT ambition to deploy autonomous ASW screen in the North Atlantic
CETUS XL AUV at DSEI 2023The UK Royal Navy (RN) has outlined plans to exploit developments in remotely-operated and uncrewed/autonomous systems to deliver a deployable and persistent wide area anti-submarine warfare (ASW) search capability in the North Atlantic.
Known as Project CABOT, the two-part plan forms a central part of the RN’s proposition into the UK’s Strategic Defence Review. An initial market engagement activity is planned for early March.
Recent years have seen ASW re-prioritised by the RN, reflecting the importance of maintaining Homeland and Operational Advantage in the North Atlantic (identified as a strategic priority and key force-level output in the UK’s Maritime Operating Concept). However, limits on the number of high-end ASW assets mean the service has for some time been exploring opportunities to augment crewed platforms with more affordable uncrewed and autonomous systems in order to ‘digitalise’ the North Atlantic.
The potential contribution of uncrewed systems to RN ASW operations is already being investigated through the ASW Spearhead initiative. A seven-year, £400 million programme intended to both deliver near-term upgrades and invest in emerging technologies, ASW Spearhead is funding two uncrewed system technology demonstrators: the PROTEUS rotary-wing uncrewed air system; and the CETUS extra large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV).
Another activity forming part of ASW Spearhead is Project Charybdis. This work strand, for which 26 companies received Phase 1 scoping contracts to produce initial options and concepts, seeks to leverage advances in autonomy, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) to field a persistent and deployable unmanned ASW surveillance capability.
The UK is also leading the NATO ASW Barrier Smart Defence Initiative (SDI). This multinational effort (SDI 1.1271) is looking at how interoperable maritime uncrewed system solutions can provide a force multiplier in a number of ASW scenarios.
Project CABOT
Project CABOT is the RN plan to deliver remotely operated and autonomous ASW capabilities , allowing the UK to pivot to a vision of “Digitalisation of the North Atlantic”. Royal Navy infographic.Details of Project CABOT were communicated to industry in an early market engagement notice published by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 13 February. According to the notice, the aim of the project – which builds on outputs from Project Charybdis and the NATO ASW Barrier SDI – is to develop and field “a portfolio of lean crewed, remote operated and uncrewed/autonomous airborne, surface and sub-surface vehicles, sensors and nodes to provide a deployable and persistent wide area ASW search capability”.
Speaking at the Navy Tech 2025 conference in Helsinki on the same day that the engagement notice was published, Commodore David Burton (rtd), Director ASW SDI in Navy Command’s Maritime Capability team, said that Project CABOT constituted “the UK’s transformational main effort for the next five years”.
It is envisaged that delivery will be split into two phases. Phase 1 – designated ATLANTIC NET – would deliver ‘ASW as a service’ through a Contractor Owned, Contractor Operated, Naval Oversight (COCONO) model using lean crewed, remotely operated or autonomous uncrewed systems operated by an industry mission partner. “ATLANTIC NET would see acoustic data, triaged by AI/ML algorithms, supplied to a secure Remote Operations Centre for analysis by RN staff,” said the MoD engagement notice.
Current planning assumes ATLANTIC NET being operationalised within the next two years. According to the RN, the use of the COCONO model would significantly increase “mass and persistence at sea whilst releasing traditional RN platforms for other tasking”.
Phase 2 – known as BASTION ATLANTIC – would see a transition to an RN-owned and operated force of uncrewed platforms, alongside a host of other sensors, to deliver mass and persistence in the North Atlantic via a more traditional government owned, government operated model. The RN has identified two projected platforms: an ASW uncrewed surface vessel designated as the Type 92 sloop; and an extra large UUV known as the Type 93 chariot. BASTION ATLANTIC would also consider the use of undisclosed UK-developed underwater battlespace area denial capabilities.
According to Burton, the aim is to deliver BASTION ATLANTIC, and transition to the GOGO model, by 2030. “That would be a heterogenous mix of assets, not just surface assets but underwater and airborne assets,” he said, adding that the full scope of delivery for Project CABOT would encompass multiple strands of activity. “The assets is one. The service delivery is another [and] data and AI is right at the heart of this.”
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/02/uk-sets-out-project-cabot-ambition-to-deploy-autonomous-asw-screen-in-the-north-atlantic/
