Sir Keir Starmer’s much delayed Defence Investment Plan had one big bet at its heart: drones are the future of warfare.
The world has certainly become troublingly familiar with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in recent years, both in the skies above Ukraine and Russia but also in the Iran conflict.
However, there is less awareness of how autonomous weapons are poised to transform maritime warfare too.
And with Russia scouring the seabed of the Atlantic in order to map Britain’s vital undersea cable and pipe infrastructure – the MoD says Russian incursions into UK waters have increased by 30 per cent over the past two years – maritime drones, particularly submarines, could be the key to protecting the Home Front from the likes of Vladimir Putin.
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