As navies explore new ways to increase reach, resilience and operational effectiveness, the concept of the hybrid navy is becoming an increasingly important part of the maritime autonomy conversation. In this Q&A, Expleo looks at what a hybrid navy means in practice, why sustainment and supportability matter, and how organisations can start to think about autonomous systems as part of a wider maritime enterprise.
1. What does “hybrid navy” mean, and why is it generating so much interest across the maritime sector?
The hybrid navy is ultimately about bringing crewed, remotely operated and autonomous systems together as a single, integrated force. It is not simply about adding uncrewed vessels to an existing fleet; it is about changing how we generate maritime capability and how different platforms, systems and people work together to deliver an operational effect.
Navies are being asked to do more across increasingly large and contested areas, while facing very real constraints around people, cost and platform availability. Autonomous systems offer an opportunity to increase mass, persistence and reach without simply building more conventional warships.
But this is also why I think we need to look beyond the individual autonomous platform. The real challenge is creating a hybrid navy that can operate, integrate and be sustained as a coherent force.
2. Why is it important to consider sustainment, supportability and operational availability in the context of autonomous platforms?
There is understandably a lot of attention on what autonomous systems can do: their sensors, payloads, endurance, levels of autonomy and the missions they might undertake. But ultimately, a platform only generates capability when it is available to operate.
If we introduce large numbers of autonomous systems without thinking about how they will be maintained, recovered, repaired, updated, replenished and returned to operations, there is a danger that we create fleet mass without creating usable operational mass.
For me, sustainment therefore cannot be something we solve after the platforms have been designed. It needs to be considered as part of the capability architecture from the outset.
3. What is “available mass”, and why does it matter for future maritime capability?
There is an important distinction between how many platforms a navy owns and how many it can actually make available when and where they are needed.
Autonomous systems potentially allow us to generate much greater fleet mass, but simply increasing platform numbers does not necessarily translate into greater operational capability. If a significant proportion of those systems are unavailable because of maintenance, software issues, recovery, logistics or integration problems, then the apparent advantage can disappear quite quickly.
This is what we mean by available mass. The important measure is not simply the number of platforms in the fleet; it is the operational effect that can be generated from them at a particular point in time.
That distinction becomes increasingly important as navies move towards larger and more distributed autonomous fleets.
4. What are some of the biggest challenges organisations face when integrating autonomous systems alongside existing naval capabilities?
One of the biggest challenges is that we are not starting with a blank sheet of paper. Autonomous systems have to operate alongside existing ships, submarine, aircraft, infrastructure, support organisations and command structures, many of which were never designed with this type of integration in mind.
That creates challenges across physical integration, data, communications, command and control, logistics, maintenance, assurance and regulation. There is also a significant human element. We need to understand how people interact with increasingly autonomous systems and how responsibilities and decision-making change as a result.
The difficult part is that these challenges are interconnected. You cannot really solve platform integration independently from support, infrastructure, people or the wider operating model. That is why I think a systems approach is so important.
5. As maritime autonomy continues to evolve, what opportunities are you most excited about?
One of the most exciting opportunities is the ability to rethink how we generate maritime capability rather than simply replacing existing platforms with autonomous equivalents.
Autonomous systems give us the opportunity to distribute capability differently, generate greater persistence, put systems into environments where we might not want to expose people, and potentially create much greater operational mass.
I am particularly interested in what happens when we start designing the wider force around those opportunities. How do crewed and autonomous platforms complement each other? What capabilities need to remain at sea? What can be distributed ashore? How do we support a force that might consist of tens or eventually hundreds of interconnected systems?
Those questions move the discussion beyond autonomy as a technology and towards autonomy as part of a fundamentally different maritime enterprise.
6. How does Expleo help organisations address the supportability, sustainment and systems integration challenges associated with a hybrid navy?
One of Expleo’s strengths is that we can look at these problems across the complete engineering lifecycle rather than through the lens of a single technology or platform.
We work across systems engineering, platform design, digital engineering, safety, supportability, reliability, human factors and through-life engineering. That allows us to consider not only whether an autonomous system can perform its intended mission, but how it integrates with the wider force and how it can be supported and sustained throughout its life.
For hybrid navy programmes in particular, I think that breadth is important. The challenge is increasingly at the interfaces: between platforms, hardware and software, operators and autonomous systems, and the operational force and the support enterprise behind it.
Our role is to help organisations understand those interfaces early, identify where the risks and dependencies sit, and develop solutions that are operationally effective as well as technically achievable.
7. Looking ahead, what do you think will define successful hybrid navy programmes over the next decade?
Successful programmes will be those that stop thinking about autonomous systems as individual platforms and start thinking about them as part of a wider maritime system.
Technology will undoubtedly continue to develop quickly, but success will depend on much more than autonomy itself. It will depend on interoperability, supportability, infrastructure, people, logistics, digital integration and the ability to evolve systems rapidly as technology and operational requirements change.
Most importantly, I think need to keep asking a relatively simple question: does this actually generate more operational capability?
If the hybrid navy can deliver greater reach, persistence and mass while remaining affordable, supportable and available when it is needed, then it has the potential to fundamentally change how maritime forces operate.
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