🛥️Royal Navy Stands Up First Autonomous Boat Squadron With 20 Kraken Drones

Your Navy just got a drone fleet, and it's live

The Royal Navy just stood up its first autonomous boat squadron, and it's not a pilot program anymore. It's a unit with 180 personnel, split into two watches so it can run around the clock, flying a fleet of 20 uncrewed boats bought from UK firm Kraken Technology Group. Why should a developer care? Because this is a real-world test bed for remote operation, autonomy, and command software at sea. Whoever builds the control stacks, sensor fusion, and telemetry pipelines for these boats is now working on something with actual operational stakes. The squadron's job is to pathfind drone operations, which means the messy integration work lands on teams like this one first. The hardware is serious. The K3 Scout is an 8.4 m boat hitting 55 knots, carrying up to 600 kg, with a range of 650 nautical miles and seven days of endurance. The smaller Rattler is 7.2 m with a 500 kg modular bay and 950 nautical miles of range. Last year, five of these boats were remote-piloted to escort HMS Tyne and HMS Stirling Castle, so this isn't theoretical. The squadron sits under the Hybrid Navy concept First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins outlined earlier this year, which promises more reach, more striking power, and more options. Watch whether the Navy publishes operational data from the squadron. That will tell you how far autonomy has actually moved.