UK Royal Navy Adopts Ukrainian-Style Sea Drone Tactics in Landmark Exercise
The UK Royal Navy has begun integrating Ukrainian-inspired innovations into its naval warfare strategy, testing a new system that combines unmanned surface vessels (USVs) with FPV drones – a combat pairing first pioneered by Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Defence Express.
During the Trident Sprint 1 exercise, held over two weeks at Chivenor Naval Base in Devon, the Royal Navy and British defense engineers demonstrated a range of autonomous and unmanned technologies designed to strengthen the country’s digital and information warfare capabilities.
Images released by the Royal Navy showed a Mantas T12 sea drone built by MARTAC equipped with an FPV drone mounted via a fiber-optic connection – a configuration directly mirroring Ukraine’s approach to naval combat.
Ukraine’s military was the first in the world to deploy FPV drones on maritime platforms, using them to target and disable Russian air defense systems in the Black Sea. These operations have been widely recognized as a breakthrough in low-cost, high-impact warfare tactics.
Now, Western militaries are studying and adapting the concept. According to defense experts, the UK’s experiment underscores how Ukrainian battlefield innovation is reshaping Western naval doctrine, with lessons from the front lines being rapidly translated into NATO testing programs.
The Royal Navy said Trident Sprint 1 was the first in a series of exercises focused on integrating advanced technologies into real-world operations.
The drills also tested Strike Net, a tactical communications network designed for coordination across unmanned systems, and explored how autonomous fleets could function without satellite connectivity.
Alongside the sea drones, the exercise featured robotic “dogs,” aerial drones, and AI-enabled systems capable of operating in contested or GPS-denied conditions.
“Ukraine’s ingenuity has effectively rewritten the playbook for 21st-century naval operations,” one British defense source told Defense Express. “The Royal Navy is taking those lessons seriously.”
As The Gaze reported earlier, Ukraine has developed a new generation of low-cost interceptor drones that are reshaping modern air defense and redefining the dynamics of the war with Russia.