Cyber attacks 'as big a threat to new warships as missiles and torpedoes'

By Ben Farmer

06 Aug 2015

The new Type-26 Global Combat Ship has been designed to protect its weapons, engines and systems from cyber warfare.

A computer-generated image of how the new Type 26 vessels will look Photo: BAe Systems/MoD/PA

Hackers and cyber attacks pose as great a threat to Britain's hi-tech warships of the future as missiles and torpedoes, the man in charge of building the Navy’s new frigate has warned.

Increasing levels of computer control and automation mean protecting vessels against electronic attack has become a focus of shipbuilding for the Navy.

The new Type-26 Global Combat Ship, which is designed to be the workhorse of the Royal Navy when it is built, has been designed to protect its weapons, engines and systems from cyber warfare.

Geoff Searle, head of the Type-26 programme at BAE Systems, said: “It is an equally important threat to the more traditional threats and one that we take very seriously and design the ship to be confident it can withstand that.”

Mr Searle said cyber attack “is a real threat, certainly, it’s something we take very seriously, particularly areas of the combat system, communications systems, power and propulsion control systems.

“We put a lot of effort into ensuring the security of those systems from a software, from a communications point of view.”

He went on: “It’s certainly had a growing focus in the design of ships in recent years. I think we all recognise that the cyber threat affects a lot of areas of business and industry and security, so it is a real emerging threat of recent years.”

Earlier this year academics at Lancaster University warned expensive warships would be rendered useless by skilled hackers employed by enemy states, criminal gangs or pirates.

The report, called The Future of Maritime Cyber Security, concluded: “For the first time in maritime history, the positive correlation between capital spent and power is undermined; cyber attacks are low-cost alternatives to physical attacks, which have the ability to cripple maritime operations.”

The 6,000 tonne Type 26 is the most advanced ship design of its kind in the world. The 489ft vessel is designed to specialise in hunting and defeating enemy submarines. But it will also be able to carry a Chinook helicopter in its hangar and switch to carrying vehicles, extra accommodation, boats, or drones according to its mission.

Despite a deal not being signed, Mr Searle said the current assumption was shipbuilding would begin in Glasgow late in 2016 and the first vessel would be floated in 2019, before entering service early next decade. The programme will keep going until around 2035 and warships will be in service to the middle of the century and beyond.

Mr Searle said the ships electronics and software could be upgraded and improved over its long lifetime to protect it from ever more advanced cyber attack.