The Navy will spend $448 million on AI and Autonomy technology to accelerate shipbuilding, John Phelan, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy said recently.
The Navy will invest the funding in the Shipbuilding Operating System (Ship OS) that will leverage Palantir’s software to bring modern best practices to the data-heavy environment of Navy shipbuilding.
“This investment provides the resources our shipbuilders, shipyards, and suppliers need to modernize their operations and succeed in meeting our nation’s defense requirements,” Phelan said. “By enabling industry to adopt AI and autonomy tools at scale, we’re helping the shipbuilding industry improve schedules, increase capacity, and reduce costs. This is about doing business smarter and building the industrial capability our Navy and nation require.”
Managed by the Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) program in collaboration with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) the initiative will aggregate data from enterprise resource planning systems as well as legacy databases and other operational sources to identify bottlenecks, streamline engineering workflows and support proactive risk mitigation while giving the Navy a data-driven approach to production management.
During the initial pilot deployments, AI-powered capabilities show their results. At General Dynamics Electric Boat, submarine schedule planning was reduced from 160 manual hours to under 10 minutes, while Portsmouth Naval Shipyard cut material review times from weeks to under one hour. The early outcomes show that integrating AI and autonomy can improve efficiency, accuracy and output, officials said.
While the initial investment will focus on submarine shipbuilding, shipyard and critical suppliers, the expansion beyond submarines will be systematic and informed by lessons learned through the pilot and submarine programs.