BMT’s new state-of-the-art Digital Innovation & Simulation Centre (DISC) aims to accelerate immersive engineering, autonomous systems assurance and digital twin solutions for defence and commercial customers.

Underpinning the Full Mission Bridge is the DNV-accredited BMT REMBRANDT high‑fidelity hydrodynamic engine, which enables everything from tug and pilot training, through to litigation‑grade reconstruction.

DISC also hosts the Marine Autonomous Surface Ship Synthetic Environment Assurance System (MASS SEAS) synthetic environment and BMT ENGAGE, which allows users to create photorealistic digital twins and cyber and wargaming scenarios, as well as immersive VR/AR training programmes.

These capabilities directly support BMT’s autonomous vessel, de-risking provision and marine incident analysis services for defence and commercial customers.

High-fidelity simulation

“High-fidelity simulation environments allow the naval design spiral to be exercised in a more integrated and evidence-driven manner, particularly in the early design phases,” says Andrew Gray, head of emerging products and programmes at BMT.

He explains that immersive simulation and digital twin environments enable naval architects, operators and assurance specialists to interrogate ship behaviour, operability and system interactions before physical assets exist.

This supports earlier identification of design sensitivities relating to manoeuvrability, human–systems integration, autonomy behaviours and operational constraints.

“As a result, a greater proportion of design learning can be achieved virtually, reducing reliance on late-stage physical prototyping,” he says.

“Physical trials remain essential, but their emphasis increasingly shifts toward validation and confirmation rather than discovery. This approach supports more rapid convergence of the design spiral and reduces the risk of costly design change during integration and sea trials.”

Andrew Gray, head of emerging products and programmes at BMT (left) and Monty Long, regional future business director at BMT (right)

Digital twin strategy

Integrated digital twin environments are increasingly capable of forming a central component of assurance strategies for complex naval programmes, provided they are appropriately governed and validated, says Monty Long, regional future business director, BMT.

These environments allow scenarios to be exercised repeatedly and consistently, generating traceable evidence that supports technical decision-making.

“Digital twins do not remove the requirement for physical testing; however, they allow assurance activity to be distributed across the programme lifecycle rather than concentrated at the end,” Long says.

“In this sense, they increasingly act as the primary mechanism for risk exploration and evidence generation, with physical trials providing confirmation against an already well understood design envelope.”

BMT’s work on SEAS/MASS SEAS shows how this plays out when autonomy moves from trials into fleet concepts. By running DNV‑grade synthetic trials against MASS and COLREGs requirements, autonomous system behaviour can be demonstrated across thousands of encounters that would be prohibitively risky or expensive to recreate at sea.

Sea trials can then be used to prove the most demanding edge cases and build human confidence in what the models already show.

Assurance driven simulation

Simulator-based autonomy assurance influences design requirements by forcing earlier consideration of system behaviour, control authority and human interaction across a wide range of operational conditions.

“For both crewed and uncrewed platforms, this approach encourages autonomy to be considered as an integral part of platform design rather than an add-on capability,” says Gray.

“Assurance-driven simulation therefore plays an important role in shaping hull form, systems integration and concepts of operation, supporting safer and more trusted deployment of autonomy at scale.”

BMT is already using these environments to explore mixed‑fleet concepts in which crewed ships, modular USVs and remote operations centres share situational awareness and control, testing how design choices around hull size, payload modularity, comms architecture and human–machine interfaces play out when vessels are operating at scale and under pressure.

This helps customers refine requirements for everything from bridge layout and ROC design to sensor fit and redundancy, ensuring future platforms are engineered from day one for trusted autonomy, lean crewing and rapid upgrade paths, rather than having those demands bolted on mid‑life at far higher cost.

Multi-stakeholder design

DISC also provides a shared digital environment in which designers, operators, regulators and assurance stakeholders can align assumptions and expectations earlier in the programme.

This reduces the likelihood of late-stage disagreement over design intent or evidential sufficiency.

BMT sees this most clearly in programmes where DISC is used as a neutral ’digital canvas’ to bring together Royal Navy sponsors, regulators such as NATG, industry partners and classification societies.

“That doesn’t change who holds ultimate design authority, but it does create a more commercial, programme‑savvy environment in which risk is shared more intelligently and the evidence is visible to all,” Long says.

Digital innovation hubs

The emergence of digital innovation hubs reflects a broader shift toward continuous design and assurance across the naval platform lifecycle.

Warships are increasingly required to evolve over extended service lives, incorporating new technologies, autonomy functions and mission requirements.

Facilities such as DISC provide the infrastructure to support persistent digital twins, ongoing simulation-based assurance and iterative engagement with stakeholders throughout the lifecycle.

“This supports a more adaptive approach to warship development, in which capability evolution is informed by continuous evidence rather than isolated programme milestones,” says Long.

For BMT, DISC is deliberately set up as more than a one-off facility – it is a template for how navies and industry can manage continuous evolution of complex fleets, including hybrid crewed–uncrewed constructs like MODUS.

“Digital hubs don’t replace discrete build programmes, but they do enable a more ‘evergreen’ warship model – where capability is refreshed, re-certified and re-commercialised through a persistent digital twin,” says Gray.

Alongside DISC, BMT’s work on modular payload programmes – including its partnership with Force Development Services (FDS) in support of the Royal Navy’s NavyPODS vision, underlines this shift from one-off builds to a continuously adaptable fleet.  

“By treating PODS-style payloads, uncrewed platforms and motherships as parts of a coherent system, we can use digital hubs to prototype new load-outs, rehearse mission switches and refine support models before they are rolled out across the fleet,” says Long.

That combination of modular hardware and persistent digital assurance is what ultimately enables a ‘continuous warship design’ mindset in practice – allowing navies to re-role ships and refresh capability at the speed of relevance, while maintaining control over risk, availability and through-life cost.