Royal Navy to launch autonomy accelerator

Written by Hannah McGrath

09/09/2019

The Royal Navy’s autonomy accelerator Navy X is to launch a search for innovative ideas in autonomy capability.

In a statement announcing the Autonomy Innovation Accelerator - a joint project between the Navy’s Defence and Security Accelerator and NavyX - the Navy said the new competition would involve “reaching out to innovators to propose mature autonomy ideas that will increase the efficiency of maritime operations, or otherwise provide improved operational capability and help them delivery military output on operations”.

The competition will be aimed at helping naval command with global technological changes which have seen “unmanned, autonomous and semi-autonomous systems are drive a revolutionary change in society and in the military”.

The accelerator will seek proposals for rapid impact and novel Maritime Autonomous Systems (MAS) capability innovations to drive transformational change in the Royal Navy.

The organisations will look for solutions that demonstrate the capability to autonomously move valuable loads, from ship to ship, ship to shore and shore to ship, with minimal operator input.

They will also be looking for mature technologies that the Royal Navy can rapidly develop and prove in an operational environment.

Launched in April this year as part of a £75 million initiative, NavyX is tasked with driving rapid, continual transformation change in maritime environments using technology to advance the force’s platforms.