Britain's robot submarines: the opened market engagement on October 13 for the extra-large uncrewed submarine (around 2 metres in diameter, 12 metres long), part of its hybrid-navy plans and a project under , the Australia-UK-US defense partnership; it is mapping vehicle makers, payload developers and autonomy suppliers. Its experimental predecessor (25 tonnes, 1,000 nautical miles of range) test-fired a heavyweight torpedo off Scotland, the announced on September 30 as a first for a British robot submarine. Separately, the Navy opened a tender for US-made reconnaissance quadcopters (about GBP 120,000, roughly USD 160,000), which fly themselves around obstacles and hold position without satellite navigation.
Limits
Market engagement maps suppliers and is not a contract; Excalibur's torpedo firing was a separate test milestone.