US Navy & Palantir Begin £448m ‘Ship OS’ AI Programme To Modernise Shipbuilding

The US Navy has started a $448 million programme with Palantir to develop “Ship OS,” an artificial intelligence system designed to make shipbuilding and repairs faster and more efficient.

The programme was announced at an industry event on Tuesday and involves the Navy’s four public shipyards and two private yards that have not been named.

Ship OS will collect data from construction, maintenance, and supply systems to help shipyards work more efficiently and give managers a clearer view of costs, schedules, and risks.

The programme will be run by the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base Programme and Naval Sea Systems Command, with a focus on submarines and critical suppliers during the initial two-year contract.

According to Navy officials, early tests of AI in shipyards have already shown big results. At General Dynamics Electric Boat, planning submarine schedules dropped from 160 hours to under 10 minutes, while Portsmouth Naval Shipyard reduced material review times from several weeks to under one hour. The Navy said this shows how AI can improve efficiency, accuracy, and output in shipbuilding.

The Navy also said that Palantir teams are working inside shipyards to understand the data, identify problems, and find ways to improve performance.

Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Jason Potter, told reporters that Palantir staff are examining different types of data from various systems to pinpoint what drives performance and where the bottlenecks are.

Funding for Ship OS comes from the Reconciliation Act.

The programme builds on earlier testing of a system called “Warp Speed for Warships”, which Palantir and BlueForge Alliance (BFA) worked on over the summer.

That system aimed to combine old Navy and industry data to better manage supply chains for new ship construction. Former BFA president Kiley Wren said the partnership with Palantir had focused on major submarine builders, General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding, as well as their suppliers.

Palantir, named after a magical communication device from The Lord of the Rings, is known in the Pentagon for its Project Maven AI tools used in targeting and planning.

The Navy made its announcement on the same day US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled the Pentagon’s new AI platform, GenAI.mil, showing that the military is increasing its use of artificial intelligence in defence projects.

Reference: USNI

Source: Maritime Shipping News