UK Media: Shifting to Unmanned Warfare, Britain Plans to Abandon Construction of Expensive Destroyers

【Global Times Special Correspondent Wu Yan】The trend of unmanned warfare has also reached the British Navy. According to a report by the BBC on June 30, the British Navy plans to abandon the costly construction of the Type 83 air defense destroyers and instead procure six so-called "multi-role combat vessels" at a lower cost, to serve as the maritime command center for drones and unmanned boats. This approach has sparked significant controversy within the UK, with critics claiming that the British Navy is engaging in a costly "gamble."

The British Navy originally planned to build up to eight Type 83 air defense destroyers to replace the six active Type 45 air defense destroyers, with an expected displacement of over 10,000 tons and equipped with 72 to 128 vertical launch system cells, with a unit cost exceeding £2 billion. However, according to a new plan released by the UK Ministry of Defence on June 29, the British Navy will change its previous approach of concentrating capabilities on a few large, expensive vessels, shifting towards a mixed navy that combines manned and unmanned vessels to better address the challenges of modern warfare. Specifically, as one of the largest military reform plans in the UK in decades, the upcoming "Defence Investment Plan" proposes to abandon the continued development of the Type 83 destroyers in favor of constructing at least six new "multi-role combat vessels" to serve as command centers for various unmanned combat systems, which include the Type 93 unmanned anti-submarine vessel, the Type 91 unmanned escort vessel, and the Type 92 and Type 94 unmanned sensor platforms for aerial and maritime reconnaissance.

The BBC reports that the newly appointed UK Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis has been working over the past two weeks to "realign" UK defense policy to draw more lessons from the combat experiences in Ukraine and Iran. Supporters claim that, for example, Ukraine has virtually no navy, but with extremely innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly repelled the Russian Black Sea Fleet, making it difficult for them to approach the Ukrainian coast again. These drone technologies can be applied in surface, aerial, and underwater domains; although the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps no longer has large vessels, it can still launch attacks from coastal bases using low-cost, easily concealable unmanned boats, continuing to pose a threat to the vital Strait of Hormuz.

However, critics question whether the British Navy's new plan will be effective at all, suggesting that its purpose is merely to "save money." Former British Navy commander Tom Sharp stated, "Currently, there are many tasks that drones cannot accomplish, and the technology and weaponry required to enable them to perform these functions will be very costly." He also added that the related costs could be "comparable" to those of the canceled Type 83 destroyers.

The UK website "Naval Observer" states that the seemingly attractive concept of developing a mixed navy could actually be a very risky move. The core of its concept—the distributed combat system—essentially relies on reliable communication links, but satellites can be jammed, subjected to cyberattacks, or destroyed, and radio networks can also be disrupted by electronic warfare, potentially severing the communication command chain between the command center and unmanned vessels. The report warns that the Type 45 destroyers are currently the only major vessels in the UK with ballistic missile defense capabilities, and abandoning the construction plan for the Type 83 destroyers will leave the future fleet of the British Navy unable to respond to advanced threats such as long-range missiles, ballistic missiles, and autonomous attack systems.