Naval Group Unveils SCX 26 Concept Warship With Lasers, Railguns and Drones for 2040s Fleets

Naval Group SCX 26 warship concept, Digi Mart USA News: French shipbuilder Naval Group has revealed the SCX 26, a concept for the warship of the 2040s. The design is intended for a future naval environment in which ships face massed missile attacks and swarming drones, and must adapt to unpredictable threats and rapidly changing missions.

The SCX 26 is described as an 8,000 to 10,000-tonne vessel that emphasises firepower, physical resilience and modular adaptability. It is designed to act not only as a strike platform but also as a command-and-control mothership able to manage complex networks of crewed and uncrewed platforms.

According to the publisher’s account, the concept measures 170 m (558 ft) in length, with a top speed of 30 knots (35 mph, 56 km/h) and a range of 8,000 nautical miles (9,206 miles, 14,816 km). Below deck it provides accommodation for a core crew of 150, plus up to 100 drone operators, special mission forces and fleet command staff.

The armament centres on up to 128 vertical launch system (VLS) cells in fore and aft bays, which could accommodate air-defence, anti-submarine, anti-hypersonic and land-attack missiles. The concept also includes a 100-kW laser weapon for engaging large drone attacks and a stealth 57-mm electromagnetic railgun turret, teamed with 360-degree secondary artillery that is remotely controlled.

The ship would carry a general mission space amidships for mission modules and a large stern hangar with an electric lift for storing, maintaining, launching and recovering air, surface and underwater drones. Its most distinctive feature is two elevated stealth superstructures, each with its own bridge and a distributed mast configuration of antennas and sensors.

Naval Group says this layout is intended to provide redundancy, allowing the ship to keep fighting after a catastrophic hit, whether from a missile or a cyber attack. Spreading electronics, communications, radar and electronic warfare assets across the two structures is also meant to improve area coverage and reduce interference, which matters because the SCX 26 is intended to command a larger force of ships, drones and aircraft through a digital network that lets units act together in real time or autonomously.