The UK will allocate £90 million for unmanned systems, sensors, and artificial intelligence for the Royal Navy. They will help detect Russian submarines and protect undersea cables, energy networks, and important shipping routes in the North Atlantic.

This was reported by the UK Ministry of Defence.

A framework agreement with the British company Ocean Infinity Solutions was to be signed the same day. According to the ministry's assessment, the investment will support the creation of nearly 200 jobs at the company and its direct suppliers.

How the Atlantic Net system will work

The new system called Atlantic Net will unite maritime unmanned vehicles, underwater sensors, communications equipment, remote control, and data processing. This network will be managed by the Royal Navy.

Sensors will help detect submarines and suspicious activity, while unmanned vehicles will patrol the ocean depths. The collected data should provide anti-submarine warfare ships and Astute-class submarines with earlier warning of threats and a more complete picture of what is happening underwater.

Atlantic Net will become the first stage of the broader Atlantic Bastion program. Its goal is to create a fleet in which crewed ships will work together with unmanned systems to search for and track enemy submarines and protect underwater infrastructure.

Some of the technologies for such surveillance have already been tested during the NATO REPMUS exercise. According to a Royal Navy report from October 1, unmanned boats collected acoustic data and transmitted information about underwater targets in real time.

Two autonomous boats, 12 and 17 meters long, were tested for towing sonars and deploying automated hydroacoustic buoys (underwater microphones). The results should help determine future decisions for Atlantic Bastion.

Britain will implement the program in cooperation with NATO allies and the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). It is intended to strengthen protection against sabotage and other hostile activity, as well as support the security of British nuclear deterrence forces.

Recall that the UK became the first international partner of Ukraine whose defense companies will be able to join Avengers Labs — a Ukrainian platform for training AI models for unmanned systems on data from the battlefield.

The news has been updated with information about Atlantic Bastion.