UK Calls Industry to Shape Royal Navy’s Future Type 93 Extra-Large Uncrewed Submarine Force.

Britain is taking a significant step toward an autonomous underwater force with the Type 93 programme, a new generation of extra-large uncrewed submarines designed to extend the Royal Navy’s reach into contested waters while reducing risks to crewed vessels. In a market-engagement notice published on 12 October 2026, the Ministry of Defence called on industry to help shape the platforms, payloads, artificial intelligence and mission systems behind the future capability, potentially giving Britain a persistent undersea tool for surveillance, seabed operations and other high-risk missions while accelerating its shift toward a Hybrid Navy and deeper AUKUS-enabled underwater warfare.

Britain is seeking defense industry input to shape the Royal Navy’s future Type 93 extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle capability, including its payloads, autonomy, mission systems and support architecture (Picture Source: BAE Systems)

Britain is opening the door to industry to help shape a new generation of extra-large uncrewed submarines that could become an important element of the Royal Navy’s future underwater force. In a preliminary market-engagement notice published on 12 October 2026, the Ministry of Defence linked the emerging Type 93 XLUUV programme directly with Britain’s transition towards a Hybrid Navy and its commitments under AUKUS Pillar II. According to Find a Tender Service Notice 096028-2026, the Royal Navy is seeking industry input on platforms, payloads and the technologies needed to support them, marking an important step in turning years of underwater experimentation into a potential future operational capability.

Britain is effectively calling on a broad defence-industrial ecosystem to help define what a future Type 93 capability could look like. The Royal Navy is seeking interest not only from manufacturers of Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles, but also from payload developers, autonomy and artificial-intelligence specialists, mission-management software providers, systems integrators and through-life support companies. Companies registering may subsequently be invited to collaborative workshops, one-to-one discussions, industry days and written Requests for Information, with their responses informing requirements development and wider programme planning. The breadth of the engagement is significant: rather than treating Type 93 simply as a vehicle acquisition, the Royal Navy appears to be examining the complete capability architecture surrounding it, from autonomy and mission software to payload integration, sustainment and support, before future requirements are fixed.

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Crucially, this remains an information-gathering phase. Participation does not constitute pre-qualification and the notice explicitly states that it should not be interpreted as a commitment to proceed with a future procurement. That distinction is important because the Royal Navy is still shaping the requirement rather than selecting a final platform, fleet size or in-service configuration. The preliminary engagement gives industry an opportunity to influence the future technical framework while allowing the Navy to compare what is realistically available across platforms, payloads, enabling technologies and support arrangements.

Type 93 Takes Shape Around a New Generation of XLUUVs

One of the most revealing details is the Royal Navy’s initial interest in vehicles approximately 12 metres long and 2 metres in diameter, while deliberately leaving the door open to proposals of different dimensions. That scale closely resembles XV Excalibur, the 12-metre experimental XLUUV developed by Plymouth-based MSubs for the Royal Navy under Project Cetus. It is also broadly comparable to BAE Systems’ Herne extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle, another roughly 12-metre platform developed around a modular approach to autonomous undersea missions. Excalibur is an experimental test vessel rather than a confirmed Type 93 design, while Herne is a separate BAE Systems programme, but both provide useful indications of the kind of large autonomous underwater platforms British industry is already developing. Their broadly similar scale and emphasis on adaptable mission payloads make them relevant reference points for a future Type 93-class capability, without implying that either design has been selected.

That experience became still more relevant in September 2026 when XV Excalibur successfully launched and controlled an inert US Navy Mk48 Mod 4 heavyweight torpedo during an AUKUS trial at the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre in Scotland. Neither the vehicle nor weapon had originally been designed for that arrangement, making the integration effort a notable demonstration of modular adaptability. The experiment is significant because it illustrates the value of an open and adaptable payload architecture for large uncrewed submarines, an approach also reflected in platforms such as Herne, although there is no indication that the Mk48, Herne, Excalibur or any other specific weapon or platform has been selected for Type 93. The lesson for the Royal Navy is less about a particular weapon or vehicle than about proving that future XLUUVs can be configured to accept new mission systems and payloads as requirements evolve.

Type 93’s Role in the Royal Navy’s Hybrid Fleet

The wider Royal Navy plan is considerably more significant than acquiring another experimental underwater drone. Under Britain’s Defence Investment Plan, the service is moving towards a Hybrid Navy combining conventional warships, submarines and aircraft with autonomous and uncrewed systems. Type 93 has been identified as the extra-large uncrewed underwater component of that future force, with the government stating that such vessels are intended to operate alongside crewed hunter-killer submarines in the anti-submarine warfare mission. This points towards Type 93 acting as a force multiplier for Britain’s highly capable crewed submarine fleet rather than replacing it. At the conceptual level, XLUUVs could allow the Royal Navy to distribute sensors, payloads and persistent underwater presence across a wider operating area while reserving crewed submarines for missions where their capabilities are indispensable.

The precise operational concept remains under development, however, and the present market notice specifies neither a final configuration nor fleet quantity. The government has separately said numbers of its Type 91-94 uncrewed maritime systems are expected to expand during the 2030s, reinforcing the direction of travel without fixing the eventual scale of the Type 93 programme. This makes the current market engagement especially important: the Royal Navy is effectively testing the maturity of the industrial base before locking itself into a particular technological path. For Britain, that approach offers the possibility of building a more adaptable underwater force in which hardware, software and payloads can evolve progressively rather than being tied from the outset to a single fixed solution.

Type 93 is also being developed against a much larger allied backdrop. The market engagement expressly supports Britain’s commitments to the AUKUS Pillar II Signature Project for uncrewed undersea vehicles, through which Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States plan to develop payloads and enabling systems capable of operating across their respective UUV fleets. The project encompasses sensors, navigation and potential offensive capabilities alongside common standards, control systems and other technologies intended to increase interoperability. AUKUS is pursuing a phased approach, initially developing national payloads designed to be interchangeable and integrated by each partner before progressing towards jointly developed trilateral payloads and next-generation enabling technologies. Delivery under the Signature Project is scheduled to begin in 2027, meaning Britain’s Type 93 market engagement is taking place as the trilateral UUV initiative begins moving towards its first capabilities.

There is also a distinctly British industrial dimension. Experience accumulated through Project Cetus and XV Excalibur has already given the Royal Navy and the UK maritime sector practical exposure to large autonomous underwater systems, while the new engagement considerably widens the field to companies working in vehicles, payloads, AI, autonomy, software, integration and support. For UK industry, the potential opportunity could extend well beyond construction of the underwater vehicle itself: considerable future value may reside in the digital architecture, mission systems, payload integration and through-life support surrounding Type 93. Instead of prematurely freezing the requirement around one existing solution, the Royal Navy is using market engagement to establish what industry can realistically provide and allow those findings to inform future requirements. Organisations have been asked to aim to register by 29 October 2026 at 17:00 GMT, although registration will remain open throughout the preliminary engagement programme.

Britain’s Type 93 initiative represents an important but carefully measured step towards putting greater autonomous mass beneath the waves. The significance of the latest move is not that the Royal Navy has already selected its next uncrewed submarine or ordered a defined fleet, but that it is beginning to translate experimentation into a structured future capability requirement. With XV Excalibur providing increasingly sophisticated practical lessons, Type 93 now occupying a defined place within the Hybrid Navy vision, British industry offering expertise across the autonomous-undersea ecosystem, and AUKUS creating a pathway towards interoperable payloads and enabling systems, the United Kingdom is establishing many of the foundations from which a deployable XLUUV capability could emerge. For the Royal Navy, the ambition is becoming clearer: combine the reach and combat power of Britain’s crewed submarine force with scalable autonomous systems, while preserving the flexibility to adopt the strongest technologies that British and allied industry can deliver.

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Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.