Illustrative: Royal Marines of 3 Commando Brigade during Exercise Cold Response in Norway, a recurring NATO High North deployment. Image: U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa, via DVIDS (public domain). Not an image of the new craft.

High-Speed Insertion Craft and Strike Drones: Inside the UK £500m Commando Force Plan

Technical Summary

On 28 June 2026 the Ministry of Defence confirmed that over £500 million will be committed to transforming the United Kingdom’s Commando Force as part of the refreshed Defence Investment Plan (DIP). The package re-equips the Royal Marines with new high-speed Commando Insertion Craft (CIC), uncrewed vessels and strike drones, and it reorients the force towards the High North. Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis has framed the plan as a shift of spending towards front-line capability, set to be published ahead of the NATO Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on 7 and 8 July 2026.

Nearly £100 million of the headline figure is ring-fenced for transformative technology: uncrewed surface vessels, next-generation communications, networked targeting and strike drones. The Commando Insertion Craft will replace the ageing landing craft the Royal Marines have operated for years, moving raiding teams over long distances at speed. The Ministry states the craft could be used to board and seize further Russian shadow-fleet tankers and to conduct other maritime security operations. The craft programme is expected to run jointly with Norway, a key NATO Ally in the High North, building on the recent Type 26 frigate export agreement between the two nations.

Nearly £100 million is ring-fenced for uncrewed vessels, next-generation communications, networked targeting and strike drones, inside a wider package of over £500 million for the Commando Force. UK Ministry of Defence, 28 June 2026

What the Plan Funds

The announcement separates a funded near-term tranche from longer-dated, less-defined ambitions. The table below grades each strand by how firm it is in current open-source reporting.

The Insertion Craft: CIC Becomes the Joint Commando Craft

The high-speed craft at the centre of the package has a short but active procurement history. The Royal Navy requirement, first styled the Commando Insertion Craft (CIC), has since March 2026 been pursued jointly with Norway as the Joint Commando Craft (JCC). A joint Request for Information was issued that month through the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) and the Royal Navy Directorate of Navy Acquisition (DNA). Open reporting puts the joint ambition at up to 30 craft over a programme estimated at around £237 million and spanning 2026 to 2032. The craft would replace the legacy Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) from 2027, with prototypes expected around 2028 under a spiral acquisition model.

Industry has already responded. At the DSEI 2025 exhibition, Leidos unveiled Sea Dagger, a 20-metre design entered for the requirement. Its published figures show the design space rather than a selected solution: a range of more than 400 nautical miles, speeds in excess of 40 knots in sea state 2, low-observability characteristics for over-the-horizon insertion, and a modular bay able to carry up to 24 commandos, an inflatable raiding craft or light vehicle, or roughly six tonnes of palletised stores. No craft has been chosen. Those parameters belong to one bidder’s concept, not to a contract specification.

Analysis: From Landing Craft to a Networked Raiding Force

The plan marks a deliberate move away from mass amphibious lift towards dispersed, sensor-led raiding. The earlier Multi-Role Strike Ship (MRSS) ambition, up to six large vessels of roughly 25,000 to 40,000 tonnes, has been scaled back. In its place the Royal Navy now intends to acquire amphibious transport ships built and operated in cooperation with the Netherlands, reviving the long-standing UK and Netherlands Amphibious Force under tighter, better-aligned requirements. The strike-drone and uncrewed-vessel investment is the strand that changes how the Royal Marines fight. A small boarding or raiding team would gain organic reconnaissance, networked targeting and a precision strike option that previously sat with larger platforms.

For weapons and ordnance practitioners, the detail that matters is not yet public. The Ministry’s language covers “strike drones” and “networked targeting” without naming an airframe, a munition or a warhead type. A strike drone in the maritime-raiding role could span anything from a small loitering munition carrying a sub-kilogram shaped-charge or fragmentation warhead to a heavier one-way attack system. Net Explosive Quantity (NEQ), warhead fill, fuze state, and Hazard Division (HD) and Compatibility Group (CG) classification are all unstated. Those parameters set the magazine, stowage and transport regime aboard any insertion craft or mothership. They sit under the current UK framework, the Defence Safety Authority Order for Ordnance, Munitions and Explosives (DSA 03.OME), and the NATO storage standard, Allied Ammunition Storage and Transport Publication AASTP-1 (Edition C). Until the systems are named, the safety and logistics footprint cannot be assessed.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

Pushing strike drones and loitering munitions down to small-boat raiding parties moves energetic material forward to the team level, away from the controlled magazine of a major warship. That raises practical questions about ready-use stowage on a fast, wet and vibrating craft, about the electromagnetic compatibility of fuzing in a dense communications environment, and about the competence and qualification of operators handling armed systems at the point of insertion. None of this is a barrier. It is the routine WOME (Weapons, Ordnance, Munitions and Explosives) groundwork that follows any decision to distribute munitions to dispersed teams. The procurement documents, once issued, should specify storage, handling and training standards before first delivery rather than after.

Data Gaps

The following remain unstated in open sources and are recorded as data gaps rather than asserted: the selected Joint Commando Craft design and builder, with the requirement still open (up to 30 craft and a programme estimate near £237 million are reported, but no platform has been chosen); the strike-drone and uncrewed-vessel types, payloads and warhead characteristics (NEQ, fill, fuze state, HD and CG); the split of the £500 million across platforms beyond the near £100 million technology tranche; firm delivery timelines for the Anglo-Dutch amphibious transport ships; the crewing and armament fit of the Common Combat Vessels; and confirmation of the final Norway and Netherlands programme structures, which sit at the cooperation-intent stage in current reporting.

Corrections & updates welcome. If you hold open-source data that refines or corrects any parameter in this article, please contact [email protected] citing the specific claim and your source. Verified corrections will be incorporated and credited in the revision history. AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product.