Newcomen Society - ‘New Maps of Hell: the first years of naval drones & anti-shipping guided missiles’

In the Black Sea, Russia’s fleet has almost ceased to exist, thanks to a weapon we think of as ultra-modern. Except it isn’t. The first naval drone was German; its first casualty was an Ipswich man, and the year was 1917!

Dr Phil Judkins traces the history of naval drones and missiles, and defences against them, over the last century – a story with many surprises. In the Second World War, Germany’s devices, little recorded in history, sank one battleship, crippled two more, sank one heavy cruiser and crippled two more; even less recorded is that Britain’s first response was using electric shavers to jam radio command signals. Not admitted for over 20 years was the biggest single loss of life at sea to US forces, which occurred in an almost unknown battle between 40 German missiles and two US shipborne radio jammers.

The use of similar missiles is traced through the Falklands, and then brought up to date with the rapid pace of development in the Ukraine, and of British anti-drone devices such as DragonFire and the less romantically-named Ealing Project.

The lecture concludes with contemplation of the future of Britain’s naval carrier forces against the potential opposition of Chinese stealth Ju Tian drone ‘mother-ships’, each capable of carrying sizeable drone swarms with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability thousands of miles before release.