Superyacht meets Star Trek: Imagine a fleet of lighter-than-metal ships armed with weapons that fire at the speed of light.
Welcome to the Royal Navy in 2050.
Dreadnought 2050: Here's what the Navy of the future could be sailing
Plastic ships that can become see-through. Electro-magnetic weapons with a range of hundreds of miles. Torpedoes that travel at 300 knots and missiles at Mach 5-plus. Just some of the ideas for warships of the future
On the horizon: How warships of the future could look
By Alan Tovey, Industry Editor
31 Aug 2015
The Telegraph
98 Comments
Warships of the future could be built from ultra-strong plastic and graphene, armed with weapons that fire at the speed of light and operated by crews a fraction of the size needed by current vessels.
The proposals are just some of the ideas from naval architects and engineers who were tasked by the Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence to imagine how the future fleet might look.
The challenge was issued by Startpoint, the new procurement group which brings together experts in naval defence from government, military and industry to provide advanced technology against a backdrop of tightening budgets.
The ships will look very different to what's currently in the fleet
Under the title “Dreadnought 2050” – a reference to HMS Dreadnought, the warship that entered Royal Navy service in 1906 whose revolutionary technology meant she outclassed all previous vessels – the project sought outside the box ideas about systems future warships would be equipped with.
HMS Dreadnought rewrote the rules for warships when she entered service in 1906
Ideas included vessels built out of acrylic ultra-tough composites which are not only lighter than metal, but could be switched between being opaque to transparent by running an electric current through them. This would allow the crew to see through the hull, improving control of close-in battles and improved vision when manoeuvring.
Wonder material graphene - which is 207 times stronger than steel and was discovered at the University of Manchester in 2004 - could be used to increase the strength of ships, as well coating hulls to reduce drag, meaning they could sail faster and use less fuel.
A trimaram hull gives the ships a menacing appearance
Engineers also considered ballast tanks that could be filled with water so the ships sat much lower in the water, making them stealthy and smaller targets, when they were not being driven at high speeds by waterjets powered by fusion reactors.
Conventional masts could be abandoned for a drone carrying sensors such as radar. This would be connected to the ship by a tether made from cryogenically-cooled carbon nanotubes which would transmit power to aircraft’s motors and also energy weapons such as lasers, which could knock enemy missiles out of the sky.
Masts could be replaced by drones which are tethered to the ship and carry sensors such as radar
Naval architects also suggested arming the ships with electro-magnetic “railguns”, which fire projectiles as far as today’s cruise missile fly, rows of missile tubes along the ship’s sides which launch hypersonic missiles at speeds of Mach 5-plus (approximately 4,000mph at least), and supercavitating torpedoes which travel at 300 knots because they are encased in a bubble of gas which reduces friction.
They also considered future systems inside ships, including the operations room, the nerve centre of warships and from which their weapons and sensors are controlled and co-ordinated. A holographic command centre would dominate this space, and commanders would be able to zoom in on areas and change the point, meaning they could focus on land, sea or air.
The ships could have fleets of small drones, which replace current helicopters
The operations room would have superfast data connections to the rest of the fleet and aircraft, along with headquarters, meaning operations could be commanded from thousands of miles away.
Using such advanced technology is expected to cut the number of crew required from about 200 on a contemporary warship to as few as 50.
The operations room could be dominated by a holographic command table
Commander Steve Prest, the Royal Navy’s fleet robotics officer, said: “We welcome a project that allows some of Britain’s best and brightest young engineers to come up with ideas on what a warship might look like or be equipped with in 2050. We want to attract the best new talent to sea to operate, maintain and develop systems with this level of ambition.”
The ships could have a hangar at the stern to launch smaller boats from
Muir Macdonald, a Startpoint senior executive, said: “While some of these technologies push today’s boundaries in science and engineering, there is no reason why elements could not be incorporated into future designs.
“The country needs visionary, innovative thinking and these concepts point the way to cutting-edge technology which can be acquired at less cost and operated with less manpower.”
Dreadnought 2050: Here's what the Navy of the future could be sailing - Telegraph
