Ghost ship: Britain’s Royal Navy tests a different kind of drone, a futuristic unmanned speedboat

The Royal Navy has tested a futuristic unmanned speedboat on the Thames near Tower Bridge in advance of a naval drone exercise off the UK coast this autumn.

To the delight of tourists, Tower Bridge swung open to let through the sleek, low-slung craft, known as Mast (Maritime Autonomy Surface Testbed).

Accompanied by the patrol craft HMS Archer, the 10-metre Mast spent an hour on Monday weaving between pleasure boats and goods barges at a moderate pace, heading up the river towards Westminster before returning downriver.

Although it is capable of navigating and avoiding collisions autonomously and can be operated via remote control, Mast had a coxswain on board to take control if needed because of Port of London bylaws, which also limited the speeds at which it could travel.

Mast is being developed with research funding from the Ministry of Defence’s science and technology laboratory, to explore how well such vessels function autonomously. It is expected to eventually play a role in surveillance and reconnaissance.

The words “drone” and “unmanned” are usually associated with aircraft, but the world’s militaries have long been interested in their potential at sea. “In some senses the maritime environment is playing catch-up when it comes to unmanned technologies but the potential is very significant,” said Nick Giles, a marine analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a military thinktank.

Unmanned fleets were viewed as transformational in tasks such as anti-submarine activity and surveillance, Giles said, but the technical challenges were also significant.