Mine Hunting Capability
UK Royal Navy programme replacing crewed minehunters with autonomous systems and motherships.
Last refreshed: 18 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Is the Royal Navy's robot-ship mine hunting programme actually replacing crewed ships on schedule?
Timeline for Mine Hunting Capability
Received its next procurement tranche
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: UK to buy three Norway mothershipsBackground
The Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) programme is the Royal Navy's transition plan from crewed Hunt-class minehunters to autonomous and remotely operated mine-countermeasures systems; UK Defence Minister Luke Pollard confirmed on 17 July 2026 that Britain will procure three further offshore support vessels jointly with Norway, with GBP 90 million set aside inside a wider GBP 1.3 billion effort.
MHC pairs autonomous underwater and surface systems with converted mothership vessels that launch, recover and command them at sea, replacing dedicated minehunter hulls with a mothership-plus-drone model.
The retirement of HMS Chiddingfold on 13 July 2026 handed her mine-countermeasures tasking to MHC's autonomous systems and to Type 26 and Type 31 frigates , turning the programme from a stated intention into the Royal Navy's live operating model.
What is the UK's Mine Hunting Capability programme?
How much is the UK spending on mine hunting motherships?
Which ships are part of the UK's Mine Hunting Capability programme?
