{"id":30188,"date":"2026-08-27T21:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=30188"},"modified":"2026-08-27T21:06:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:06:45","slug":"the-black-sea-recipe-is-not-a-panacea-for-the-royal-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=30188","title":{"rendered":"The Black Sea \u201crecipe\u201d is NOT a panacea for the Royal Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Royal Navy is moving on a transformation trajectory. Its transition to a \u201chybrid Navy\u201d has already been announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The substitution of highly strategic and tactical mobility and flexibility naval forces (Fleet) by forces, literally and figuratively \u201canchored\u201d, in fixed positions is evident! A common and main feature of the transformation of naval forces is the effort to significantly reduce procurement and operating costs in relation to the conventional structure, which is based on manned platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These have now evolved into multiple roles and despite the numerical reduction in staffing requirements due to automation, they require a high level of knowledge and skills of personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Navy, which, from approximately 50 destroyers and frigates at the end of the Cold War, currently has only six Type 45 guided-missile destroyers and five Type 23 frigates, units in their entirety overworked, numerically insufficient to provide the necessary escort for the two aircraft carriers it has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an indicative cost of around 1.1 billion euros per frigate of the second production batch (Batch 2), the Type 26 program was limited to just eight units and is complemented by five, significantly lower-cost, Type 31 frigates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main advantage of the transformation into a \u201chybrid\u201d is the increase in mass through unmanned platforms, whether it concerns firepower or sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, even for highly autonomous unmanned platforms integrated into a distributed architecture, a prerequisite for them to perform as expected operationally is the uninterrupted operation of the network, which by definition will be a target of electronic interference and cyberattacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasoning and criticism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also noteworthy that in the United Kingdom, the events in the war in Ukraine, and specifically in the Black Sea, are cited as a justification for the transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an indisputable fact that the maturation of technologies that allow the development and mass use, by state and non-state entities, of new weapons (such as unmanned platforms, homing munitions, hypersonic and ballistic missiles), significantly change the operational environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the success of Ukraine against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, by utilizing, mainly surface, expendable, unmanned platforms, to deny use (sea denial) in a closed sea, cannot be copied and applied as a panacea solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The denial of use of maritime space to the adversary or the achievement of control (sea control) so that in peace, crisis and war the maritime lines of communication that connect the maritime trade routes operate? If we voluntarily limit ourselves to the denial of use, are we not relinquishing control of the maritime space that constitutes the connective tissue of a continental and oceanic country, and therefore are we manipulating ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War and peace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the usefulness of a naval force is not limited to war. Statistically, participation in military operations constitutes only a small part of the operational life of the deployed platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the contrary, naval presence and patrol missions, maritime security and cooperation with naval forces of allied and friendly countries constitute a very important part of everyday life and form, since peacetime, the conditions that determine the occurrence of crises and their further development. What is the value of unmanned platforms in these missions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, the transformation of naval forces into \u201chybrid\u201d ones is inevitable. But it should not signal, as in the case of the Royal Navy, the abolition of high-capability platforms whose operational utility extends across the entire spectrum of missions, in peace, crisis and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the contrary, equipping them (as mother ships) with unmanned platforms will increase the range of their sensors, the ranges and the mass of their fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of the \u201chybrid Navy\u201d, which will combine Artificial Intelligence (AI) and autonomy with warships and aircraft, was specified in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) published on 30 June 2026. This, among other things, provides for an investment of at least 1.3 billion pounds (1.52 billion euros) for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n