Canada deploys explosive drone boat in first proof of ‘new operational concept’ for navy

A Canadian Hammerhead remote-controlled vessel is pictured in the Mediterranean Sea in July 2024. (Gregory Cole/Canadian Armed Forces)

The Royal Canadian Navy is experimenting with explosive-packed drone boats, turning lessons learned from Ukraine’s war with Russia into a “new operational concept” for Canada’s maritime forces.

The first test of the concept came during a multinational naval exercise that concluded earlier this month off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where one explosive-laden vessel was driven into another uncrewed boat and detonated.

The drone boats, known officially as Hammerhead uncrewed surface vessels, are typically used by the navy as remote-controlled targets to mimic small speedboat attacks on larger ships.

But weaponizing the drone vessels is a “new operational concept” the navy had been considering to demonstrate its “expanding capabilities in uncrewed maritime operations,” Capt. Pedram Mohyeddin, a spokesperson for Maritime Forces Pacific, told CTV News in response to questions about the test.

The explosive-laden Hammerhead was launched from HMCS Vancouver and controlled by a satellite link as operators steered the boat into the target vessel. The explosives were detonated and both vessels were destroyed, according to Mohyeddin.

“Though this is not a tactically viable operational capability at this point, it could be with further development,” the spokesperson added. “The RCN is able to rapidly scale such innovations if and when required.”

‘Canada needs to be ready’

Capt. Sam Patchell, the deputy commander of Canada’s Pacific fleet, who oversaw the exercise that included vessels from the United States and Mexico, told CTV News beforehand that the training scenarios would take their cues from real-world events.

“The conflict in Ukraine is a great example,” he said, referring to the use of explosive-bearing maritime drones, during a June 13 interview.

“This is a technology that is moving rapidly, changing rapidly,” Patchell added. “We’re seeing it on the battlefield in other areas of the world, so Canada needs to be ready for that – both to defend against it and, if required, to use it.”

The Canadian navy acquired dozens of the Hammerhead uncrewed vessels in 2017 as part of a $4.7-million deal with QinetiQ Target Systems. The manufacturer says the vessels were designed to help ship operators train against the threat of speedboat attacks from pirates and other aggressors.

Early on in its war with Russia, the Security Service of Ukraine used explosive-packed drone boats in several high-profile kamikaze attacks on Russian warships in the Black Sea.

In the months and years since, Ukraine has developed variations of the platform, some carrying missiles and machine guns to attack airborne and terrestrial targets.

“If you look at Ukraine, it’s all about what’s innovation look like at the simplest level possible,” Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, told host David Herle during an interview on the Herle Burley podcast released on July 3.

The planning for the explosive Hammerhead test, he said, began several weeks earlier.

“We looked at what Ukraine did and two months ago, we said, ‘Aright, we’ve got to figure out how we could turn this into a weapon against somebody else,” Topshee said.

“We took one, we controlled it through a satellite link using first-person view and drove it into another one and managed to demonstrate that, if we wanted to, we could drive a large, remotely controlled speedboat full of high explosives into another ship – a capability we didn’t have two months ago. That didn’t cost a tremendous amount of money, that was just using the things we have right now.”