The Royal Navy has completed a six-week AUKUS Pillar 2 trial with the US and Royal Australian Navies, testing uncrewed technology to protect critical undersea infrastructure off the US coasts and southwestern Australia.

QinetiQ has installed an additive manufacturing facility at HM Naval Base Clyde, enabling submarine components to be printed and delivered dockside on demand. 

Naval architects face a compressed design programme under the UK's £300bn Defence Investment Plan, which replaces the Type 83 destroyer with the Common Combat Vessel, a hybrid warship coordinating four new uncrewed classes.

Delivering maritime fuel cells that can drive deepsea shipping is not only within reach but is inevitable according to some.

Maritime wings are taking off! The latest design from Alfa Laval and Wallenius Marine is promising to make wind the primary source of vessel power.

Solar power has finally found its way onto ships. Slow uptake of solar energy is seen as surprising. Coastal shipping is showing that solar can improve efficiencies.

Incat and Echandia are demonstrating how working closer together on modular battery integration, collaborative vessel design and whole-system engineering is working to future-proof ferries as technology and infrastructure evolve.

Chartwell Marine is expanding its work in the fast passenger ferry market, drawing best practice from CTV design. Its low-wake ferry hullform is a direct response to how electrification has fundamentally changed vessel design.

Salmon Marine’s Wavebreaker dynamic ballast system, originally conceived for offshore racing powerboats, has evolved into a design solution for reducing vertical accelerations experienced by crew and passengers operating at speed.

Fully electric, eCSOV’s are being designed in Spain for Bibby Marine. Battery power, with enough energy to power a CSOV for 24hours, will increase efficiency and cut costs according to the company. New and more thermally stable batteries will aid the transition.

Power generation and offshore support vessels are both in the frame to benefit from fourth-generation small modular nuclear reactors. Ulsteinvik and Island Offshore explore the possibilities.

Deeper, more exposed and less accessible fossil fuel reserves require more sophisticated offshore support vessel designs. With floating LNG increasingly in demand to help access and process fuels.