Britain’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP) marks a significant shift in military priorities. Over four years, an additional £15 billion will take spending up to £298 billion overall.
This includes £63 billion to fund nuclear deterrence and £8 billion for future combat aircraft. But its most attention-grabbing headline concerns the maritime domain.
Plans for the Type 83 destroyer to replace ageing Type 45s have been shelved.
Instead, at least six Common Combat Vessels will be acquired, to act as hubs for
uncrewed systems (drones). Alongside them, more than £5 billion will fund air, land and sea drones and autonomous systems across Britain’s armed forces.
The Type 83 was meant to be Britain’s next great destroyer with cutting edge
capabilities. It would have replaced the Type 45 class from around 2035. It would
have operated as part of the Future Air Dominance System (FADS).
It was never intended to be a conventional ship. Instead it was to be a platform for maritime air defence, strike, sensing, command and networking.
Early reports described a minimally crewed warship between 145 and 165 metres long. It would have displaced between 6,000 and 10,000 tonnes. Its planned surface role included maritime interdiction and self-defence against small attack craft.
Defences included a 57mm gun and directed-energy weapons (such as lasers) for
those missions. They also included decoys and directed-energy weapons for close
threats.
Its strike role was more ambitious. Planned capabilities included between 72 and
128 Mk 41 vertical missile launch cells. These could carry air defence missiles and
long-range strike weapons. There was also potential for future hypersonic weapons,
one of the most deadly weapons of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Defending airspace
Air defence was the Type 83’s central purpose. The ship would have protected UK
aircraft carrier strike groups and other allied and Royal Navy groups in places like the North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea, the Mediterranean, the Gulf, the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific region. Its mission was to defend against aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and hypersonic threats. Artificial intelligence would help select sensors and weapons against complex raids, from several directions at once.
However, all ships, including destroyers, have their own vulnerabilities. Ukraine has used small naval drones to sink the Moskva missile cruiser. The patrol ship Sergey Kotov was destroyed by Magura V5 uncrewed surface vessels.
In early 2026 Ukraine claimed around 30% of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet combat assets had been
destroyed or damaged. A Type 83 destroyer would be far more capable than any of
those ships. But it may also have had to face hypersonic anti-ship missiles one
day.
Savings from cutting the Type 83 are being spent on a wide variety of drones. These
will cover air, land and sea, ranging from small quadcopters to mine-hunting drones
and one-way attack “Kamikaze” drones. The Royal Navy will develop autonomous
vessels to act as uncrewed missile platforms, and to sense and hunt submarines.
Project Pantheon will trial jet-powered drones operating alongside F-35B aircraft.
The Army will get small Rapstone First Person View (FPV) strike drones and
interceptor drones. Project Nyx aims to have up to 24 armed drones flying as wingmen for Apache helicopters by 2030. Project Corvus adds up to 24 surveillance drones. While the RAF will develop autonomous fighter aircraft, with a demonstrator by at least 2030.
Floating platforms
The range of drones initially looks impressive, but there is no total drone
procurement figure. The DIP has specified small numbers for some higher-end
systems. Ukraine offers an uncomfortable comparison. Britain aims to produce up to
150,000 drones for Ukraine by the end of 2026. In comparison, Ukraine’s defence ministry expects to produce more than seven million drones in 2026.
That difference shows the challenge facing the Ministry of Defence and the UK government. Drone warfare requires massive numbers of low cost, low capability, short range drones. Plus significant numbers of large, medium-range and long-range drones.
So can drones replace Type 83 destroyers? No. Surface drones can be dispersed
and operated across wide areas. But in a maritime environment they need a floating
platform to operate from. The same goes for aerial drones. Neither can replace a
Type 83’s large, portable missile magazines, command facilities, or defence of a
carrier fleet. The Common Combat Vessel will provide some hybrid capabilities.
But it does not carry the strike threat or defensive capabilities of a destroyer.
The timeline to achieving these capabilities also matters. The Storm Shroud
uncrewed electronic warfare vessel is expected this year. Rapstone will receive
extra money over the next 12 months. Nyx and Corvus are aimed at 2030, and
Defence procurement is often hit by delays.
The RAF combat drone demonstrator is due by at least 2030. Common Combat Vessels are expected from the early 2030s. Until then, upgraded ageing Type 45 destroyers will need to meet new challenges. In the meantime, Ukraine is innovating, designing, building, testing and deploying drone systems faster than the UK can currently contemplate.
