The UK has created the Kraken3 surface drone – a carrier for Switchblade drones

Kraken has unveiled a new Kraken3 Scout Medium surface drone during the annual Special Operations Week conference in Tampa.

This is reported by The War Zone.

It is reported that the drone was developed by the British company Kraken to perform a variety of missions. They range from the role of kamikaze to fighting drones, as well as delivering cargo and personnel.

While the drone itself is manufactured by Kraken, AV (formerly known as AeroVironment before its merger with BlueHalo) developed the navigation technology, drone swarming technology, and two different payloads.

The drone is equipped with two different compartments designed to carry a variety of payloads. In Tampa, it was equipped with AV’s Titan 4 electronic warfare system designed to counter drones.

According to AV’s senior technical director, the Kraken3 can also carry “a lot” of Switchblade 600 and 300 drones.

Utilizing AV’s patented HaloSwarm collaborative autonomy system, the Kraken3 Scout can operate under human operator control or fully autonomously.

“We have operated three maritime drones in the UK simultaneously using our HaloSwarm shared autonomy system. The Kraken3 has four cameras, which are designed for situational awareness only, and a user-configurable optoelectronic gimbal. This can be a FLIR camera or any other camera system for longer range surveillance,” Clark said.

For communication, the drone is currently using the Starlink satellite communication system, HF radio and a 2.4 GHz channel. The drone can also operate via a mobile network, depending on the configuration required by the customer.

In the event of GPS jamming, Kraken3 is capable of navigating using the HaloNav Alternative Precision, Navigation and Timing (APNT) system. According to the company, the system “uses sky polarization, sun tracking, moon tracking, other celestial bodies tracking, Inmarsat satellite positioning, and an inertial navigation system. This system has an accuracy of less than 100 meters from a cold start anywhere in the world.” Thanks to this, the drone can operate autonomously even in the face of powerful electronic warfare.

According to Clark, the Kraken3 is capable of covering 650 nautical miles with a 600-pound payload at a cruising speed of 35 knots and has a 55-knot top speed. When used as a kamikaze, the Kraken3 uses the BlueHalo automatic target recognition (ATR) system. Thanks to this, the drone can theoretically carry out such missions completely autonomously.

“While the vessel is capable of performing a one-way strike mission entirely using ATR… we would ask that an operator be on hand for this type of mission,” Clarke said.

According to the company’s representative, there is already an order for one of the unmanned boats from an unnamed NATO country.

Recently, another British company, SubSea Craft, unveiled the MARS surface drone, which is also capable of using attack drones. In the case of MARS, it is expected to use ALTIUS drones from Anduril.