Plans to buy new Royal Navy survey ship "terminated" as £27.3m programme with drone vessel axed

A Ministry of Defence notice said plans to procure an un-crewed surface vessel for surveying missions has been “terminated”. The UK Defence Journal reports that the notice from Defence Equipment and Support, published today (February 3), said the programme was expected to supply a contractor-supported maritime autonomous platform for “global operations”.

Codenamed Project Lily, an initial pipeline notice was issued in May 2025. It set out plans to acquire one commercial un-crewed surface vessel, one that was ready and operational in an “off-the-shelf” manner. Along with acquiring a Remote Operations Centre, the ship would have been tasked with surveying open ocean environments.

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Project Lily’s estimated value was given as £27.3m, with a four-year contract duration from January 2026 to 2030. The ship was intended to support military data-gathering tasks, with a focus on hydrographic and oceanographic activity.

Larger Navy vessels which took on similar duties for the Royal Navy in the past include HMS Enterprise, which was decommissioned in Portsmouth in March 2023. Reports have been circulating that she will be scrapped. Her sister ship, HMS Echo, was retired in June 2022. Both ships served in the fleet for over 20 years and deployed across the globe. Missions were undertaken in the Gulf, Caribbean, and elsewhere.

The termination notice did not give a reason for Project Lily being scrapped. It said “procurement not going ahead”. No indication was given fr whether some parts of the requirement will be revisited, or met in another programme. The government has been pushing to integrate more autonomous systems into the fleet. Part of the hybrid navy concept, sailors will operate un-crewed vessels and submersibles alongside conventional warships in various operations such as mine-clearance and patrols.