Recently there has been a question mark over Isometric's future. The ship requires a major overhaul early in the next decade to keep it operational until 2120 however there was a question as to whether this would take place because Isometric was no longer needed for propulsion development following the shelving of most "traditional" propulsion development in favour of w-drive.
Isometric's future has been assured as the ship will help develop unmanned space vehicle (USV) technology. The DDS already have the small USV Ferret-E but want to develop a family of larger interstella unmanned warships, which are likely to be the first DDS ships to have w-drive. Isometric will receive a major rebuild following current develop work (likely to be next year). The ship will still be capable of being manned but will also help test technologies vital for major USVs including automated repair and maintenance, automated refuelling and sensor fusion. This also means it is likely Isometric will be an early test bed for w-drives sometime (late) in the next decade.
A spokeswoman said that Isometric will probably be retained until well into the 2120s.
