Defence Blog – The UK Ministry of Defence published an RFI on May 27, 2026, seeking missile silo concepts capable of 30-day autonomous readiness aboard crewed and unmanned naval vessels.

(Thanks to Alain)

Navy Lookout – In 2019, the MoD set aside £35 million to develop a Littoral Strike Ship (LSS), a deliberately low-cost vessel built around commando raiding operations but the idea faded as amphibious thinking consolidated into a single large programme – the Multi-Role Strike Ship. With the Royal Navy now both RN financially constrained and more doctrinally inclined to consider smaller, more dispersed platforms, the LSS could be one solution to partially recover amphibious capability.

Navy Lookout – HMS Scott, the Royal Navy’s ocean survey vessel, sailed from Falmouth yesterday on completion of her Ship Life Extension Programme (SLEP), which will see her in service until 2033.

The Guardian – British armed forces intercepted and boarded a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the Channel in the early hours of Sunday.

Navy Lookout – Operation HIGHMAST was the RN’s major set-piece of 2025, a 222-day global carrier strike group deployment. At CNE 2026, Rear Admiral Anthony Rimmington, Director, Force Generation, laid out some of the lessons the RN can draw from the deployment.

Military Watch Magazine – The British Royal Navy’s entire fleet of attack submariners is currently out of service, with all five sups currently in port undergoing maintenance or repair, highlighting worsening fleet readiness issues.

(Thanks to Alain)

Naval News – Rear Admiral Hakan Uçar, Commander of the Turkish Navy’s Naval Technical Command (formerly head of the Design Project Office), gave a detailed presentation on Türkiye’s indigenous aircraft carrier project known as MUGEM at the Combined Naval Event (CNE) 2026, held in Farnborough, UK, from 19 to 21 May. The presentation revealed updated specifications, new design details, and confirmed that the construction is already underway with a 2032 delivery target.

Navy Lookout – Fleet Solid Support ship construction is now advancing across three nations, with the first steel cut on RFA Resurgent in Cadiz, steelwork erection underway at Appledore and shipbuilding capacity being regenerated at Harland & Wolff, Belfast. At CNE 2026, we spoke to Navantia UK about the programme and the company’s ambitions beyond FSS.

Navy Lookout – Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon has joined the French Navy carrier strike group centred on the aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle in the Arabian Sea, marking the latest phase of the Type 45 destroyer’s deployment east of Suez.

UK Defence Journal – Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters operating alongside drones from 700X Squadron conducted three weeks of intensive exercises in the fjords around Bergen during Exercise Tamber Shield, testing tactics against fast attack boats, simulated missile threats, and aerial targets.

(Thanks to Alain)

Navy Lookout – RN Diving Threat and Exploitation Group (DTXG) personnel have completed intensive training on the VideoRay Defender-Viper, a remotely operated vehicle already used in combat by Ukrainian forces. The system is now loaded aboard RFA Lyme Bay, which sailed from Gibraltar last week for a potential multinational mine countermeasures mission in the Strait of Hormuz.

Navy Lookout – Speaking at the Combined Naval Event 2026, Commodore Steve Bolton, Deputy Director Aviation Programmes and Futures, outlined the latest progress on the RN’s Maritime Aviation Transformation (MaTX). The journey is well underway, but the hardest challenges are ahead on the way to developing an integrated hybrid air wing.

USNI News – The Royal Navy’s mine countermeasures mothership RFA Lyme Bay (L3007) departed Tuesday from Gibraltar as the U.K. and France prepare to launch a multinational military mission to ensure freedom of navigation through the strait.

Navy Lookout – HM Naval Base Clyde is now the sole operating base for the Royal Navy’s entire submarine flotilla. A newly framed Clyde Transformation Programme is an ambitious upgrade project that must rebuild many aspects of the facility while at the same time sustaining ongoing submarine operations.

Naval News – The Royal Navy (RN) has no choice but to pivot to an increasingly uncrewed and autonomous hybrid fleet if it is to achieve the lethality, survivability, persistence and mass necessary for warfighting in the North Atlantic and High North, the head of the service has said.

1945 – Britain’s Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarine is so quiet that sonar operators have mistaken its acoustic signature for a baby dolphin or ambient ocean background noise. Engineered around raft-mounted machinery, anechoic tiles, and a pump-jet propulsion system, the boat runs on a Rolls-Royce PWR2 reactor that lasts the submarine’s entire operational life and reaches 30+ knots submerged.

Naval News – The UK Royal Navy (RN) Type 45 air-defence destroyer HMS Dragon has integrated into the French Navy’s FS Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group (CSG), as the CSG operates in the Gulf of Aden/Horn of Africa region. Both the CSG and Dragon have deployed to the region to provide pre-positioned capability, should regional security conditions potentially permit international efforts to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and secure freedom of navigation, following the recent US/Israel versus Iran war.

UK Defence Journal – Project Beehive is the £12.3 million programme putting Kraken USVs into the hands of the Coastal Forces Squadron and 47 Commando Royal Marines. It was designed as a proving ground, somewhere to test ideas with real hardware in real conditions, and Ballard is open about the uncertainty on where this will lead, telling me, “I have this phrase when I walk around Navy command headquarters. Let’s have some humility and go, I don’t know.”

Navy Lookout – The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is on course to crew a seventh ship later this year after a deliberate decision to reduce the operational fleet to address a serious personnel shortfall. Commodore Sam Shattock, head of service, speaking at the Combined Naval Event, set out progress on retention, recruitment and the pathway to restoring full operational capacity.

Navy Lookout – The UK has now received all 48 F-35B Lightning aircraft ordered under its initial programme, supposedly providing the Royal Navy with the nucleus of the fast jet force intended to underpin carrier strike operations for decades to come. This may appear to be a healthy number, but it is far from adequate, given its availability and the multiple roles it must perform.

Navy Lookout – In the Keynote speech for the 2026 Combined Naval Event at Farnborough, First Sea Lord General Gwyn Jenkins delivered his sharpest challenge yet to the concept of building ever more expensive warships. His insistence that the RN must move away from the need for “ever bigger, ever more expensive platforms”carries pointed implications for significant warship programmes still in the planning pipeline.

Barents Observer – HMS Prince of Wales is carrying helicopters set to play a key role as NATO forces conduct submarine detection training in the Norwegian Sea next week.

Naval News – UK engineering SME Force Development Services (FDS) has successfully tested its containerised medical mission module at sea for the first time, marking a significant milestone for the UK Royal Navy’s (RN’s) NavyPODS – Navy Persistent Operational Deployment System – programme.

Navy Lookout – The Ministry of Defence has confirmed the RN will send a new fleet of uncrewed surface vessels to the Gulf as part of a multinational force working to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Kraken K3 Scout can sense, track and identify threats, possibly working alongside HMS Dragon, RFA Lyme Bay and other coalition assets in what will be the RN’s first acknowledged operational USV deployment.