Project BEEHIVE, opened on the market with a first notice published in early November 2025, is about supplying the Royal Navy with a flotilla of Uncrewed Surface Vehicles to be used for training, Tactic Development, Warfare Development, Capability Development, and operations in UK waters. As many as 12 companies responded the call, with the contract award decision taken in favour of Kraken Works, a young UK company founded just 5 years ago but which has already become a key player in the USV scene.
The contract is worth £12.3m and will see the 20 K3 boats assigned to the Coastal Forces Squadron and to 47 Commando Royal Marines for “operations, training and development activities to help set the foundation for further uses of autonomous and uncrewed technology”.
The Kraken K3 had already been repeatedly observed and tested in trials and demonstrative events including, most recently, TRIDENT SPRINT in the October of 2025. The K3 family of USVs has been successfully demonstrated not just to the MOD but to the wider NATO through Task Force-X (Baltic). Kraken has also established a joint venture with European shipbuilder Rheinmetall Naval Systems and says it will be “announcing further joint ventures/licensed manufacturing agreements in 2026”.
The K3 family includes the SCOUT type, 8.4 meters long and displacing no more than 2500 kg, the HEAVY at 11.1 meters of length and the MAX which pushes dimensions up to 18.6 meters with a payload of up to 10 tons.
The SCOUT has a payload of 600 kg, with some modular spaces available in the hulls which have been proposed for various uses, including for launch and recovery of DIODON small drones (a French design which can land on water). The SCOUT can sail at 55 knots speeds and travel up to 650 NM at 25kts. It is proposed for use in a multitude of missions, from anti-ship strike to casualty evacuation, with various ISR and EW fits in the middle. The K3 series is low-observable and has been designed from the keel up for autonomous, crewless operations.
The BEEHIVE flotilla follows the earlier RATTLER experimental flotilla, a group of 7 USVs (delivered at Autonomy Level 3, denoting Remote Control) supplied by SYOS Aerospace. RATTLER made news in November 2025 when a mini-swarm of 5 operated alongside crewed ships in Scottish waters while being controlled remotely from 500 miles away, by 2-man crews embarked on the experimental ship XV PATRICK BLACKETT in Portsmouth.
Kraken is also known to have received some DASA funding supporting development of its K4 MANTA uncrewed surface and sub-surface hybrid vehicle, potential solution for the Royal Marines requirement for a large drone able to submerge to sneak close to enemy shores.
The Royal Navy has an open tender for a 24 meter USV as well and plans for an accelerated drive towards the purchase of large Uncrewed Vessels (40 meters or more). These later plans however, like almost everything else, remain hostage of the budget situation and the enduring delays to the finalization of the Defence Investment Plan.
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