Courtesy Photo | Royal Marine Brigadier Jaimie Roylance, the Royal Navy’s Chief Technology Officer,...... read more read more
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LONDON, England — In a first-of-its-kind transatlantic hybrid event, the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy recently converged at His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth and Downtown Norfolk, Virginia, to explore how cutting-edge computer vision technologies can revolutionize the maintenance and sustainment of platforms across air, land, and maritime domains, bolstering overall warfighting capabilities. This milestone collaboration, led by the London Tech Bridge (LTB), the Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge, and the RN 1710 Naval Air Squadron, combined a virtual conference with simultaneous in-person demonstrations on both sides of the Atlantic, highlighting a new era in U.K.-U.S. innovation commitment.
LTB, a department of the Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global), enhances collaboration between the U.S. and Royal Navies, promoting agility and innovation. This initiative aligns with the Delivering Combined Seapower (DCS) charter, a bilateral, tri-service strategic plan first signed in 2014. DCS fosters the integration of U.S. and U.K. maritime forces by advancing interoperability and transitioning towards interchangeability. LTB plays a key role in this mission, facilitating joint investment, cooperative development, and the exchange of cutting-edge technologies, ultimately strengthening the operational capabilities and readiness of both navies.
Emphasizing the focus on enhancing warfighter readiness, Royal Marine Brigadier Jaimie Roylance, the Royal Navy’s Chief Technology Officer, said: “I am delighted to see the international science and engineering interactions delivered by the London Tech Bridge and Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge looking at the best ways of enhancing warfighter readiness. Under Delivering Combined Seapower, the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, USMC and USCG seek to bring our naval services ever closer and through this event looking at opportunities for shared technology together, simultaneously and in multiple locations, we are able to bring industry and operators from both sides of the Atlantic ever closer and more ready for the fight.”
The event highlighted the diverse applications of emerging technologies, with a particular focus on computer vision, a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables machines to interpret and understand visual information in ways similar to humans. Driven by advancements in digital photography, computing power, and AI, computer vision has made significant strides in recent years. While it’s widely known for applications like self-driving cars and target recognition, this event explored its use in the maintenance and sustainment of naval platforms. It addressed challenges such as detecting corrosion on ship hulls, identifying wear on aircraft engines, and monitoring the structural integrity of critical infrastructure, all while managing the complexities of scaling these solutions across diverse fleet and force environments.
During the event, select industry partners showcased mature solutions using computer vision systems to detect faults before failure. Demonstrated technologies included vibration visualization systems, onboard fault-detection cameras, and advanced data manipulation techniques to enhance visual data analysis. Live equipment demonstrations highlighted how rapidly deployable solutions can reduce asset downtime, improve reliability, and boost mission readiness at shipyards and bases, ultimately enhancing both fleet/force readiness and operational lethality.
The event also highlighted computer vision’s role in the maintenance sectors of both the U.S. and Royal Navies. With many of these technologies already fully mature, the goal was to accelerate their transition to fleet and force users. Additionally, the demonstrations could help shape future naval research and development funding.
Live demonstrations from 10 U.S. and international companies highlighted the potential of these technologies to:
Enhance maintenance prediction: Leverage indicators like vibration to proactively identify maintenance needs, minimizing downtime and maximizing asset availability.
Improve system monitoring: Provide real-time monitoring of hard-to-access components, enabling early anomaly detection and failure prevention.
Optimize resource allocation: Use AI to monitor assets at the fleet level and predict resource requirements, allowing for optimal deployment.
Attendees engaged in a dynamic real-time virtual discussion that connected participants from both countries. Naval personnel shared their experiences using these systems in both lab and operational settings, demonstrating how front-line maintainers can enhance aircraft availability through these technologies. Academic and industry experts discussed future developments and real-world use cases, culminating in an interactive Q&A session.
A key takeaway was the importance of defining the practical and operational parameters for implementing computer vision systems. Success isn’t solely dependent on smart algorithms; it requires the right balance between network connectivity and local computing power. These systems must be intuitive and capable of real-time, offline data processing to support warfighters, maintainers, and technicians working in network-limited environments. This collaborative approach between the U.S. and Royal Navies not only addressed these challenges but also provided industry and academia with a unique opportunity to contribute to:
Common investments: Leveraging shared R&D to maximize impact and deliver cost-effective solutions.
Interchangeability: Fostering early collaboration to develop more interchangeable platforms.
Accelerated technology transition: Facilitating connections that rapidly transition innovations to the fleet, ensuring swift adoption of technologies that enhance lethality and readiness.
This event was more than just a technology showcase; it offered a glimpse into the future of defense logistics, where AI, machine learning, and computer vision underpin predictive maintenance strategies that enhance warfighting readiness.
ONR Global’s efforts highlight the U.S.-U.K. commitment to accelerating emerging technology integration through innovation partnerships. The NavalX Tech Bridge Network, with its 18 Tech Bridges, plays a key role in connecting the Navy with cutting-edge innovations. By facilitating the adoption of advanced technologies like computer vision, ONR Global ensures naval forces maintain a decisive edge in a rapidly changing global landscape, strengthening military readiness and lethality.
| Date Taken: | 08.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.08.2025 15:53 |
| Story ID: | 545226 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 120 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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