The war at the bottom of the sea is here. UK uncrewed vessel Excalibur shows its future

On 29 November 2025, off Sinop on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, Baykar’s K?z?lelma uncrewed combat drone detected a jet-powered target with an onboard MURAD AESA radar and destroyed it with a Gökdo?an beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. The aircraft was also operating an indigenous secure datalink and identification-friend-or-foe system. It was an important demonstration of how far an uncrewed combat aircraft could move into a mission so far monopolised by crewed fighters. Then, on 13 September this year, the experiment went underwater. At the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre in Scotland, the Royal Navy’s experimental XV Excalibur—an extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle…