Underwater critical infrastructure to be protected by new Royal Navy ship

To be brought into service by 2024, the ship will have a crew of 15 people

A new Multi Role Ocean Surveillance ship (MROSS) is to be brought into service by 2024 to protect our nation against hostile actors and grow our understanding of maritime threats.

As the name suggests, the surface vessel will be able to perform a multitude of roles, such as carrying a number of remotely operated and autonomous undersea drones which will collect data to help protect our people and way of life. With operations in UK and international waters, it will support other defence tasks, including exercises and operations in the Arctic.

The vessel will help protect critical national infrastructure such as undersea cables, which carry trillions of dollars of financial transfers each day and transmit 97% of the world’s global communications.

The ship will be a surface vessel, with a crew of around 15 people who will conduct research to help the Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence protect our undersea critical national infrastructure and keep our lives and livelihoods secure from threat.

Undersea cables are vital to the global economy and communications between governments. Submarine warfare presents a particular risk of sabotage to undersea cable infrastructure — an existential threat to the UK.

The new ship is being developed as part of a wholesale modernisation of the Armed Forces, which was unveiled in the Defence Command Paper. As part of the government’s Integrated Review, the Prime Minister has committed to invest in technologies and capabilities to protect British people from new and evolving threats.

New projects like the MROSS are part of a drive to reduce our vulnerability to threats, including terrorism, hostile nations and serious and organised crime.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

“As the threat changes, we must change. Our adversaries look to our critical national infrastructure as a key vulnerability and have developed capabilities that put these under threat. Some of our new investments will therefore go into ensuring that we have the right equipment to close down these newer vulnerabilities.

“Whether on land, sea or air, we must make sure that we maintain the UK resilience to those that attempt to weaken us.”

The ship will also conduct research to deepen our understanding of UK and international water, enabling the UK to do more to detect threats and protect our infrastructure from those who wish to do us harm.

Across the world, nations are already investing in their own deep-sea capabilities and as a global nation it’s vital that we remain innovative, developing our own new technologies to ensure we respond to the threats of today and tomorrow to maintain our advantage.