Towards a hybrid navy: Canada’s naval commander sets out his plan

To quickly build mass at sea, NATO navies are investing in uncrewed platforms to work in tandem with crewed vessels – an approach often called ‘manned/unmanned teaming’ (M/UMT).

Uncrewed platforms add mass in both capacity and capability, helping to offset previous force level reductions being felt today across NATO’s crewed fleets, particularly at a time of returning naval contest and conflict.

M/UMT is central to many NATO navies’ wider evolutionary transformation into ‘hybrid navies’, generating a new force structure built around harnessing uncrewed autonomy to enhance crewed platform outputs.

One NATO navy starting down this pathway is the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Tasked with building deterrence across three separate and geographically vast oceans – the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific – the RCN is seeking to bolster its deterrence through force recapitalisation covering its submarine and surface forces. Central to this strategy is the development of a ‘hybrid navy’.

On the surface, the incoming River-class destroyers will be the centre of the RCN fleet. Developed under the Canadian Surface Combatant programme, the 15 ships are being built using the UK Royal Navy’s (RN’s) Type 26 City-class anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigate design.

“We absolutely need to be moving towards a hybrid navy,” VADM Topshee told DSEI Gateway.

The River-class destroyers’ capabilities are a key driver for adopting the hybrid model, the admiral explained, because the ships can carry in their vertical launching systems a mix of local, area, and ballistic missile air-defence systems plus land-attack/anti-ship strike weapons.

Yet an operational implication of such a high-end capability fit is that the RCN must create mass to defend the destroyers, as they will be primary targets for adversaries.

The option to use such surface vessels in crewed or uncrewed mode augments operational flexibility, too. For example, using the platforms without crew onboard, in fully autonomous mode, offers value in allowing the vessels to conduct tasks against certain risks in a manner that otherwise would not be attempted, VADM Topshee said, noting too that the option to operate with no crew may change risk calculations for some tasks.

The next defensive layer would involve the large uncrewed surface vessels carrying and co-ordinating a series of smaller uncrewed systems, in all domains, to provide protection for the destroyers against inbound uncrewed system attacks, VADM Topshee said.

“We need that sensor network to tell us what’s there”, VADM Topshee said. “I don’t want to patrol with a submarine: I want to be able to deter with a submarine, and have the knowledge from other platforms.”

Canada’s coastline covers over 250,000km. “To patrol all of that maritime environment, I want to do so with remotely operated platforms and with sensor networks that are fixed and mobile, and then have the submarine cued on to where it needs to go”, he explained.

Naval warfare evolution response

Naval warfare is evolving rapidly, with the admiral commenting that: “People keep telling me, ‘ships are doomed because, with all these drones developed [in the Russo-Ukraine war], why would you even build ships anymore?’”

Yet, he argued, naval warfare history has illustrated that surface ships have proved to be conceptually durable and operationally flexible despite the emergence of various technology threats.

For example, surface ship concepts have evolved over time to counter emerging threats in all domains – air, surface, and sub-surface (torpedo) – with the modern-day destroyer representing the amalgamation of defensive responses to each of these emerging threats. Yet in tandem, such concepts have retained the capacity to deliver core surface ship tasks, from surveillance to escort to diplomatic engagement.

Summarising how this evolution relates to the use of uncrewed systems and the River-class destroyers, VADM Topshee explained: “I think what we’re going to see is those hybrid vessels are going to become the defence against uncrewed systems. They’re going to act as a screen.”

Effectively, this ‘hybrid’ operational model creates a reciprocal relationship between high-end, crewed platform capabilities and uncrewed systems. In this framework, crewed platforms counter high-end threats and enable uncrewed operations; meanwhile, uncrewed systems counter one another to augment the fleet’s overall output. All of this is managed within a single, integrated, multi-layered operational framework.

In this context, VADM Topshee argued that many surface ships are likely to become ‘drone carriers’ to some degree. The Type 26 design delivers a dedicated, high-end, ASW-focused ship; however, it also provides significant capacity to enable the RCN to generate uncrewed system outputs from the River-class to support various tasks. 

Co-operation to build output

Other NATO navies, including close RCN partners, are already starting to put M/UMT operational concepts and plans into practise.

The RN, for example, is underway with uncrewed system capability procurement for the first phase of its ‘Atlantic Bastion’ plan, under which integrating M/UMT is designed to deliver ASW force multiplication around the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) Gap and elsewhere across the North Atlantic.

The RN aims to be deploying operational sensors for this phase, ‘Atlantic Net’, in 2026. The RCN, and other NATO navies such as the Royal Norwegian Navy, have expressed interest in participating in Bastion in some way.

Introducing uncrewed systems into the RCN presents opportunities for industry to provide design, technology, and capability across different elements including platforms; sensors and effectors; and integrators and enablers.

From the RCN’s perspective, VADM Topshee said: “There’s no doubt we’re going to be a hybrid force. The challenge we’re going to have to work through is how does that become real in an environment where communication could equal death?”

“Autonomy becomes incredibly important for when you don’t have the communications link,” he said, adding, “There are other means of communication we can use that will solve some of those problems we can’t see right now.”

VADM Topshee mentioned quantum technology, as an example.

The RCN has not yet tested quantum technologies within its uncrewed capability development. However, some NATO navies have, including the RN.

In October 2025, it deployed an Infleqtion Tiqker quantum optical atomic clock onboard its MSubs-manufactured testbed extra-large uncrewed undersea vehicle. An RN statement noted that such technology can help maintain platform precision, navigation, and timing, reducing external communications needs.

NATO developed as, and remains today, a collaborative alliance. Whether building uncrewed capabilities, their operational concepts, or the enablers that enhance their effective use, NATO navies like the RCN will be able to work in bilateral, multilateral, and alliance contexts to generate and integrate the massed presence and effects that uncrewed systems offer within hybrid force structures.