AI-Enabled Sustainment: Defining the Future of Navies and Shipyards

Sponsored Content: From both a shipyard and navy perspective, the availability of a detailed digital twin of a naval asset is a game-changer for maintenance, repair, and overhaul activities. Combined with the new reality of artificial intelligence (AI) as an enabling technology, how well a navy can execute fleet sustainment will become a strategic differentiator between nations.

However, as AI emerges as a transformative technology in shipbuilding, many will only be able to take advantage at a surface level. Getting a real benefit relies on structured, accessible information. Otherwise, the result is a distraction at best and harmful at worst.

Achieving the full promise of AI-enabled sustainment will require an integrated approach that connects all stakeholders across a naval asset’s lifecycle. In practical terms, this means establishing a common digital environment – often centred on a shipbuilding-specific PLM system – where design data, engineering models, maintenance records, and supply information coexist and inform each other in a continuous digital thread. The traditional gaps between design, construction, and in-service support can be bridged by unifying around shared digital models, creating a seamless flow of information from concept to decommissioning.

AI Applications in Shipbuilding and Sustainment

Planning and Scheduling: AI optimizes work sequencing and predicts bottlenecks, improving production efficiency.

Predictive Maintenance and MRO: AI can detect potential issues such as corrosion or structural stress using historical vessel imagery. Faster diagnostics reduce downtime and enhance safety.

Design Validation and Compliance: AI assists in verifying adherence to existing rules and standards, improving collaboration across shipyards and Navy.

AI can also surface assumptions made early in design, compare them to real-world outcomes, and inform planned mid-life upgrades or follow-on vessels.

Connecting Shipyard and Navy

In an integrated PLM approach, a naval program would begin with model-based systems engineering and carry those models forward into production and sustainment. For example, the US Navy has demonstrated a workflow wherein the master requirements model is handed off to an integrated PLM that the shipyard also uses, thus providing a digital thread from requirements to production without losing fidelity. When the shipyard’s design and production occur on a platform that integrates seamlessly with the Navy’s PLM system, it eliminates a significant portion of the implementation work that would otherwise be needed to map and exchange data between disparate systems.

Essentially, the Navy and industry partners are working in a shared digital workspace for the program. An architecture like this means changes are tracked from the beginning and unexpected modifications are virtually eliminated, mitigating the risk of costly rework. Moreover, because the model-based processes and connection of information are considered from the outset, there is a clear path to incorporate AI-informed intelligence as processes demand it.[BB1] FThe ultimate outcomes of this integrated PLM approach are a shipyard that can manage change more easily than before, higher operational availability, and lower lifecycle costs for the Navy.