IN Brief:
- Naval Group has presented SCX 26, a 170-metre, approximately 8,000-tonne research concept for future surface combatants.
- The proposed vessel centres on a drone mission bay and includes more than 100 vertical launch cells, an electromagnetic gun, and a 100 kW laser.
- The design is an exploration of naval architecture and future technologies, with no identified procurement customer or construction timetable.
Naval Group has unveiled the SCX 26, a 170-metre warship concept that places the launch, recovery, maintenance, and reconfiguration of uncrewed systems at the centre of a large surface combatant. Presented at Euronaval on 3 November, the approximately 8,000-tonne design is a research exercise exploring possible future naval architecture rather than a ship ordered by a navy.
The concept combines a planned speed of 30 knots and a range exceeding 8,000 nautical miles with a large aft mission bay. The space is intended to handle different combinations of unmanned aircraft, surface craft, underwater vehicles, and helicopters. Naval Group describes lifting arrangements and a high-capacity elevator connecting the storage and maintenance area with the spaces from which equipment could be deployed or recovered.
The planned aft mission bay would allocate a substantial part of the ship’s interior to handling and sustaining uncrewed platforms. Aircraft normally occupy flight-deck and hangar spaces, whereas this concept also needs routes for moving surface and underwater craft between storage, maintenance, and deployment locations. Lifts, workshop access, electrical connections, and communications equipment are therefore integral parts of the proposed design rather than equipment added after hull construction.
Naval Group also envisages the possibility of modifying or manufacturing some drone components while at sea. Such activity would place additional demands on material storage, inspection, equipment safety, and maintainers’ workspace in the mission bay. The shipbuilder presents it as a prospective capability within a research design, with no identified onboard production installation or qualified manufacturing process.
Two integrated masts feature in the architecture, with a flexible equipment zone between them that is intended to accommodate future capabilities. This arrangement concerns the positioning and replacement of ship systems, rather than a division of the entire hull into two modules. Any later addition would still need structural support, electrical power, cooling, and compatible connections to combat and communications equipment.
Proposed weapons include more than 100 vertical launch cells of different classes, a rapid-fire electromagnetic gun, two Rampart multipurpose close-in launching systems, and a 100 kW laser. Naval Group also lists remotely operated secondary artillery and other munitions. These are elements of a concept configuration, not evidence that the shipbuilder has integrated or qualified the complete weapons fit on a vessel.
Vertical launch cells would occupy considerable internal volume below deck, with their position affecting structural arrangements, ammunition safety, and access for servicing. Naval Group envisages launchers distributed towards the bow and stern, together with physical separation of certain critical systems. In the concept, these choices contribute to redundancy, but their effect would depend on a developed configuration and subsequent damage-survivability assessment.
A 100kW-class laser would introduce a different set of engineering requirements. Its electrical supply and thermal management would need to sustain the intended operating cycle, while beam control and tracking would have to operate on a moving vessel in atmospheric conditions that can affect propagation. The company has described the weapon’s intended power class but has not provided a test programme or operating envelope for the proposed installation.
The concept’s sensor suite includes a UHF radar envisaged for ballistic missile defence, sonar for anti-submarine tasks, and electronic warfare equipment. Combining those sources into a coherent operating picture would require track management, communications and decisions about which threats to engage with which available equipment. The unmanned vehicles would form another source of data and potential capability rather than simply acting as cargo in the mission bay.
The SCX 26 concept treats embarked uncrewed craft as elements of a wider combat force rather than as equipment carried only for occasional specialist missions. Remote sensors could report observations into the ship’s tactical system while aircraft, other vessels, and onboard systems contribute their own information. The concept therefore depends on reliable communications, track correlation, and clear operator authority when several platforms contribute to one operating picture.
Automation features prominently in the proposed layout, although Naval Group states that responsibility for operational decisions remains with people. Its concept has an optimised core crew of 150, with capacity for another 100 command or specialist personnel. Those figures are design assumptions, and the final staffing requirement would depend on the actual equipment fitted, maintenance philosophy, embarked aircraft and drone complement, and the level of automation achieved.
The combination of a large mission bay, substantial missile capacity, directed-energy equipment, and shipboard automation would place competing demands on displacement and ship services. Launch systems require protected internal volume, while the power and cooling needed for sensors and prospective laser equipment must share capacity with propulsion and auxiliary systems. The flexible architecture is intended to preserve room for future change within those physical constraints.
The research design sets out a 170-metre, approximately 8,000-tonne ship with 150 core crew places and space for 100 additional personnel, but it is not tied to an identified navy or construction timetable. Its drone facilities, weapons, sensors, and automation functions form a proposed arrangement for future studies. Detailed design and ship integration would determine which of those capabilities could be delivered together.
