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Unmanned Marine Systems

Asked by James CartlidgeConservativeMinistry of DefenceTabled Answered 14 February 2025UIN 29529

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has a formal target date for the deployment of Project COOKSON.

Answered by Maria Eagle

Project COOKSON is in the early stages of development and there is no firm target date for its deployment.

We are engaging with industry partners to understand what new capabilities may exist that would support our concept for a small, fast attack vessel equipped with modular payloads and capable of operating in challenging environments.

In order to inform the next stages of Project COOKSON, we held an industry Challenge Session in January and plan to launch a competitive procurement process in early 2025, for demonstrations in late 2025 or early 2026.

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