Surveillance cameras installed aboard Royal Navy K3 Scout uncrewed vessels were found transmitting data to an internet address in China, prompting Britain’s Ministry of Defence to remove the cameras’ internet connectivity. The cameras contained Chinese-made components and were installed on vessels used by the Royal Marines, according to a report published Sunday. An investigation found the cameras were sending so-called “heartbeat communications” — signals used to confirm a device is online and operating normally — to an IP address located in China. The MoD said no sensitive information was transmitted.

The K3 Scout vessels were supplied by British defense contractor Kraken Technology Group, which reportedly obtained the cameras from a third-party supplier that had provided assurances about their security. After the communications were identified, authorities disconnected the cameras from the internet. There has been no public evidence that imagery, operational intelligence or classified military information was transferred to China, and the reported transmissions alone do not establish that the cameras were being used for espionage.

The Royal Navy announced in March that it would purchase 20 uncrewed vessels from Kraken under a £12.3 million contract as part of Project Beehive, an effort to rapidly integrate autonomous systems into frontline naval operations. The vessels are intended for use by the Coastal Forces Squadron and 47 Commando Royal Marines for operations, training and development. K3 Scouts can perform missions including surveillance, force protection and precision strikes, and some of the boats have been prepared for potential operations in the Gulf.

The discovery raises questions over supply-chain security as Britain expands its use of commercially derived autonomous military technology. The Royal Navy has increasingly emphasized rapid procurement and open-architecture systems that can be upgraded with new sensors and payloads, while the British government has separately identified dependence on potentially hostile foreign technology as a national security concern. The incident has not resulted in the withdrawal of the K3 Scout fleet, and the vessels remain part of the Royal Navy’s broader effort to combine crewed warships with remotely operated and autonomous platforms.