A drone boat which could be deployed by the Royal Navy on reconnaissance and defence missions without endangering the lives of sailors has been operated remotely for the first time in UK waters.

The Pacific 24 rigid inflatable boat (Rib), which is normally used to intercept drug-runners and take sailors ashore, was tested without a crew in Portsmouth Harbour following successful trials overseas.

It was controlled both autonomously and remotely from the Navy’s experimental ship XV Patrick Blackett off the Hampshire coast.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: “The week-long trials pushed the uncrewed vessel to its limits with rough seas and even snow, testing its systems and software in a range of operational scenarios.

“The autonomous tests saw it pre-programmed to follow certain manoeuvres and directions while the remotely piloted tests saw it controlled by a Royal Marine using a console on board the ship.”

The spokesman explained that the Autonomous Pacific (Apac) boats could be deployed to carry out reconnaissance missions as well as to launch weapons and provide protection against threats while minimising the risk to sailors.

He said: “With cameras and sensors on board, the robot Rib fed back a live camera feed to control units and computers on XV Patrick Blackett, which could then be analysed.

“Other sensors and weapons could be added to further enhance its use as a vessel for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations with data fed back in real-time.”

Commander Michael Hutchinson, commanding officer of XV Patrick Blackett and head of experimentation of NavyX, the Navy’s team of autonomous experts, said: “Integrating crewed and uncrewed systems and operating them at the same time is a huge step forward for the Royal Navy.

“This is the first time a fully autonomous and crewless boat has been operated in UK waters and we have achieved this throughout the week in different conditions and completing a range of tests.

“It forms the backbone for further integration that future ships will have with autonomous technology.

“The trials and experiments we do will develop the standard operating procedures for the APAC and how to use uncrewed systems effectively for warfighting.”