The crew of future warships could be just a quarter of its current size, with machines in the future being able to carry out roles typically performed by humans, the head of the Royal Navy has said.
Admiral Sir Ben Key revealed that amid a manpower shortage, machines could take on the duties performed by large numbers of navy personnel, which would also keep more sailors out of harm’s way.
It comes after Grant Shapps announced on Monday that the Royal Marines will receive up to six new Multi Role Support Ships (MRSS), vessels that can shoot laser weapons and launch drones in a bid to bolster the UK’s military capability at sea.
Sir Ben revealed that each MRSS has a crew of around 100, approximately 75 per cent smaller than the average vessel which carries 400.
Admiral Sir Ben Key said future crews on warships could be reduced by 75 per cent
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Speaking at the First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference, he said: “If you look at the new MRSS (multi-role support ships), which clearly is a design still to settle, I would anticipate the crew of that will be much smaller than the crew of [HMS] Albion or Bulwark, which is around 400.
“There are good reasons for this, technology allows you to reduce the numbers. Why would you put into harm’s way more people than you need to?”
He said that the “sweet spot” on crew size is between 30 and 250.
However, a senior Navy source added that whilst the designs of the ships are yet to be confirmed, on average, a crew will be between 120-130.
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“When you take a ships’ company below that you really start to struggle,” the source said.
Sir Ben said that a smaller crew size would mean that “menial tasks”, such as painting the ship, could be abandoned, allowing the Navy to focus on recruiting personnel with specialist skills instead.
Announcing the development, Shapps said: “We're making these critical investments in shipbuilding to build the future Royal Navy needed to deter our adversaries, and then win if they are not deterred.
“As nations like China and Russia invest heavily in their militaries we must make sure the UK leads our allies so that the West is not left behind,” the Defence Secretary told the Telegraph.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Monday that the Royal Marines will receive up to six new Multi-Role Support Ships (MRSS)
PACommenting on the new ships, Sir Ben said: “It’s quite clear that we’re being challenged from the land domain and therefore we need more choice as to how we will engage with them.
“And we can’t always say – we have a lot of attack capability in our submarines, in our SSD astute class submarines at the moment, but we don’t always have astute class submarines in the parts of the world where we need to engage with the threats ashore.
“If a year ago someone had said that the Houthis are going to go and try and close the Red Sea, I think most people would have said that was a highly unlikely scenario. That’s exactly what’s happened.”
