BAE Systems revisits trimaran for Deployed Sensor/Effector Platform concept

BAE Systems is using knowledge from sea trials of trimaran demonstrator RV Triton (pictured) to inform its studies for a Deployed Sensor/Effector Platform. (Vosper Thornycroft)

BAE Systems is looking to revive the trimaran hullform as the basis for a future lean-crewed/uncrewed vessel that could augment larger surface combatants in a future hybrid Royal Navy (RN) fleet.

Presenting what it called its ‘Deployed Sensor/Effector Platform' concept at DSEI 2025 in London on 10 September, the company said that it would leverage prior knowledge from trials of the trimaran demonstrator vessel RV Triton completed in the early 2000s. Triton was built under Ministry of Defence (MoD) sponsorship to explore the suitability of the trimaran hullform for the erstwhile Future Surface Combatant programme.

The RN has laid out plans for the introduction of medium/large unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) as part of efforts to increase mass and lethality. In his keynote address at DSEI 2025 in September, First Sea Lord General Gwyn Jenkins said the new hybrid navy would “move to a dispersed but digitally connected fleet of crewed, uncrewed, and autonomous platforms that will redefine maritime military power”.

He added, “It is my aim to have the first of our uncrewed escort ships sailing alongside our RN warships within the next two years. We will then begin scaling across the [RN].”

Two putative uncrewed vessel classes have previously been identified by the RN's Develop Directorate: a so-called Type 91 arsenal ship that would provide additional magazine capacity for integrated air and missile defence and a Type 92 sloop to support anti-submarine warfare operations in the North Atlantic.