They are minehunting drones that are so accurate they rarely fail to spot hidden bombs lurking under the waves.
The Royal Navy hopes to deploy its fleet of Ariadne experimental robotic boats for the first time to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The vessels, powered by artificial intelligence, will be loaded onto a newly-acquired drone “mother ship”, RFA Lyme Bay, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary Bay-class amphibious support ship.
John Healey, the Defence Secretary, has agreed plans to retrofit the 580ft vessel to serve as a floating base for Britain’s unmanned minehunters in the Gulf.
She could sail from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Middle East as part of an international task force, led by the UK, to clear the critical shipping lane.
During tests, the Ariadne robots reportedly had a 99 per cent accuracy rate in detecting, identifying and dealing with dummy mines.
3103 New minehunting mothership
Chief among the tech being rolled out to replace the ageing Hunt-class vessels, the RNMB Ariadne was developed as part of a £184m project with defence giant Thales UK.
The 39ft uncrewed mine hunting boats are nicknamed “mini warships” because of their hi-tech sensors and AI controls.
They can be lowered into the water from Lyme Bay to carry out their own missions with minimal human oversight, travelling through the waves at about 20 knots (23mph).
Using a towed sensor they can scour the seabed to search for mines. They can also use a specialist imaging sonar to spot and classify the explosives autonomously.
Once the mines are found, another robot equipped with “multi-shot mine neutralisation systems” built by Saab, the Swedish defence firm, or the single-shot Seafox can destroy them.
The job was previously done by specialist divers, who served aboard the Navy’s various minehunters and minesweepers.
Ariadne uncrewed surface vessels are launched and operated from a mothership - MoD
Britain maintained an almost continuous presence of minesweepers in the Gulf and Arabian Sea for more than 40 years, using them to clear explosives from the coast of Kuwait after the 2003 Iraq war.
However, the force has been slowly phasing out its traditional crewed vessels for unmanned ones, with the French and American navies undergoing similar revamps.
Pete Sandeman, director of the Navy Lookout website, said the technology was “world-leading” but not without its issues, having yet to be tested in an active war zone.
“The capability is very immature,” he said, adding that the Navy was in “flux” as it moved to drones.
Mr Sandeman added: “We have done trials off Plymouth, which is great, but it’s a system of systems... It’s not perfect.
“We’re right in the worst possible moment for this. We had minehunters in the Gulf for 20-plus years before this balloon burst, leaving us with nothing there right now.”
RFA Lyme Bay will be fitted with a new control centre, which looks like a shipping container but has a bank of computers inside that allows sailors to oversee minehunting operations.
The ship is not expected to sail to the Gulf anytime soon, and is only likely to be used in the event of a ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran, which could take weeks.
At least a dozen mines have been laid by Iran in the strait, according to US intelligence. Britain is now leading the effort to put together an international taskforce to clear the shipping lane, through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply flows.
This will include a fleet of warships and, potentially, armed drone vessels that can protect commercial tankers sailing through the strait, which has been blocked by Tehran’s forces for weeks causing oil prices to soar to almost $120 (£90) a barrel.
Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz - Reuters
The Navy has a dedicated minehunting mother ship, HMS Stirling Castle.
However, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the chief of defence staff, is considering chartering civilian vessels to temporarily join the fleet as additional floating drone bases.
Sir Keir Starmer has previously come under fire for removing Britain’s warships from the Gulf, including HMS Middleton, the minehunter that returned to Portsmouth earlier this month.
The Navy currently has a very small team of staff from its mine and threat exploitation group present in the Gulf.