US Navy invests USD 448 million in shipyard AI
Though preliminary, Ship OS will likely be rolled out across ship construction, ship repair and maintenance (Source: US Navy)
After a pilot project with Palantir Foundry, in which submarine constructor General Dynamics Electric Boat claims to have brought a 160-hour planning job to just ten minutes, the US Navy is spending some USD 448 million in bringing AI technology to shipyards. The system Ship OS was able to reduce the time for a material review at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from weeks to under an hour. Navy Secretary John Phelan said the investment “provides the resources our shipbuilders, shipyards, and suppliers need to modernise their operations and succeed in meeting our nation's defence requirements.” Ship OS will initially support private and public yards before being adapted for surface ship programmes, with the aim of increasing capacity, reducing costs and improving scheduling across the industrial base.
The programme is overseen by the Maritime Industrial Base Program and Naval Sea Systems Command, which are gathering data to identify process bottlenecks and mitigate risks through technology. Ship OS represents a major step towards modernising decades-old workflows in submarine construction, a priority given the strategic importance of Virginia-class and Columbia-class programmes, and problems of worker inexperience, ageing facilities, insufficient construction space, and programme delays. Once lessons are established in the submarine sector, the Navy plans to extend the technology to other shipbuilding programmes to increase efficiency.
