Safety assurance and autonomy
Warrant Officer Pete Spayne is a Weapon Engineer in the Royal Navy, serving predominantly in Mine Hunters as the Head of Weapon Engineering for multiple deployments to the Middle East and Baltics. He attained a first-class Bachelor of Engineering degree with honours, from sea, with a thesis majoring on autonomous underwater vehicle design. This was followed by a Master of Science majoring on weaponisation of underwater vehicles utilising high powered ultrasound to agitate organic explosive compounds. He is still serving at sea alongside duties as a part time PhD student with Cranfield University, researching and developing an assurance framework for Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems. Pete is a Chartered Engineer, a winner of the Chief Scientific Advisors commendation, a First Sealords Fellow and formerly the Royal Navy representative to Future NEST. He lives in Lancaster with his partner Rachel and their 4 boys, alongside a small heard of cats and chickens.
