In a major milestone for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), sailors successfully conducted the Navy’s first-ever live-fire trial using an armed uncrewed surface vessel during the MAKO experiment—part of Exercise Trident Fury 2025 on Canada’s West Coast.
The trial featured the Hammerhead, a high-speed uncrewed surface target typically used for gunnery training. For this test, the platform was modified to carry a live explosive charge, launched from HMCS Vancouver, and remotely operated via satellite. Its target: another Hammerhead simulating a moving vessel. Upon impact, the detonation marked a first for the RCN—proving the precise use of an uncrewed system in a strike role that was safe for operators.
What made this achievement especially significant was the speed: the entire project—from idea to detonation—was completed in just six weeks.
“At the beginning, all we had was a challenge: take existing equipment and figure out how to safely blow up a remote and autonomous system,” said Commander Ryan Bell, Director of Naval Requirements 2, “That process of bringing together people from across explosives, logistics, diving, surface warfare, and autonomous systems—and completing all the approvals, environmental assessments, and safety checks—usually takes years. We did it in six weeks.”
Rather than build something entirely new, the Advanced Naval Capabilities team deliberately used equipment already available within the system. “We stress-tested our ability to innovate using what we had,” Bell said. “There’s no manual for this. The pool of people who have experience with remote armed systems is incredibly small. So we built, tested, and iterated—all in real time.”
Originally, the Hammerhead was to be controlled by short-range radio, limiting operators to within close range of the explosion. But safety concerns—specifically, the risk of shrapnel from the vessel’s metal components—led to a major pivot.
“To increase operator safety, we quadrupled the explosive load” said Bell. “It sounds counterintuitive, but the goal was to atomize the engine casing to eliminate large fragments.”
Ultimately, the safer and more elegant solution came from another corner of the team: satellite control. “A member of the Advanced Naval Capabilities team said, ‘If distance is the issue, why don’t we control it via satellite?’” Bell recalled. “And just like that, we could operate the Hammerhead from anywhere on Earth.”
The entire effort was driven by bottom-up problem-solving. “It was grassroots,” said Bell. “Our job as leaders was just to periodically poke our heads in and ask, ‘Are we staying true to our four guiding goals?’ Every step presented a challenge—but that’s the point. Innovation is about confronting obstacles, not avoiding them.”
MAKO was conducted in close coordination with Joint Task Force Pacific, MARPAC Range Control, and Fleet Diving Unit (Pacific), and included real-time marine mammal monitoring and environmental safeguards. Scientific support came from Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), whose experts modeled underwater shockwaves and tested explosive residue to ensure the operation met strict environmental standards.
More than a test of technology, MAKO represents a turning point in the RCN’s approach to capability development.
“We now have a much better understanding of what it would take to bring these types of systems into service,” said Bell. “Future one-way munitions may be purchased rather than built in-house, but we now know what we need, how to articulate those requirements to industry, and which policies need updating to support this kind of capability.”
The Navy’s push to integrate remote and autonomous systems is accelerating. “This is a priority for the Navy,” Bell said.
The MAKO experiment shows what’s possible when innovation is enabled at every level—by leadership, by sailors, and by a willingness to move fast.
