Crewed command ships for uncrewed flotillas

One forecast uses roughly 2,000-ton uncrewed missile vessels to add numerical mass around larger crewed frigates or destroyers. A crewed ship might support two or three uncrewed vessels, coordinate their actions, and carry helicopters and technicians for maintenance at sea. The crewed ship would also need its own missiles and defensive systems. Air-defence and anti-submarine groups would then join a carrier and its supply ships. Control from Britain through satellites would create a vulnerable communications dependency. Nearby crewed ships could instead provide local links and a rendezvous point if satellite communications failed, although laser links and airborne relays would still have bandwidth limits and remain targets. In this proposed structure, crewed combatants resemble the cruisers of a Second World War task group, while uncrewed vessels provide the numbers once supplied by smaller escorts. These are forecasts about a workable arrangement, rather than an adopted force plan.