A Royal Navy deep sea drone has fired a torpedo for the first time in a major technological breakthrough.
The 40ft-long Excalibur crew-less vessel launched a US warhead in secret trials, copying the capability of more expensive and much larger manned submarines.
The UK-built and battery operated subsurface craft has been in trials since 2025 and though it remains an experimental vessel, in future it could offer vital support to the Navy’s ageing and overworked fleet of nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines.
As the Mail has previously revealed, there have been times this year when not a single Astute submarine has been on active service
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