Events

The underwater arms race

The return of great-power rivalry, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, rising tensions in the South China Sea and growing concern over seabed infrastructure have pushed undersea capability back to the centre of military planning. But this is not simply a contest of fleet numbers. The underwater arms race today is a structural transformation of the global maritime system, reshaping deterrence, intelligence gathering, seabed infrastructure protection and the balance of power across the Atlantic, the Indo-Pacific and the Arctic. As First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins told delegates at the Combined Naval Event in Farnborough in May 2026: “We are at a fork in the road, and the decisions we take now will have seismic and lasting consequences.”

 

After decades of relative underinvestment, major powers and emerging maritime nations are recapitalising underwater capability at a pace not seen since the Cold War. This renewal spans not only submarines but anti-submarine warfare systems, autonomous underwater vehicles, support fleets, seabed surveillance networks and the protection of critical underwater infrastructure. The geopolitical landscape is simultaneously reshaping procurement strategy, with intergovernmental collaboration, export partnerships and industrial allegiances all playing a pivotal role alongside raw capability.

 

A global competition

The scale of that competition is most visible in the contest between the United States and China. Despite long-standing plans to deliver two Virginia-class submarines per year, US output has struggled to exceed around 1.1 to 1.2 boats annually, constrained by workforce shortages, supply chain fragility and industrial bottlenecks. The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan acknowledges a persistent gap between planned and achievable output, with workforce availability now the single largest constraint on recapitalisation. The US is simultaneously managing the Virginia-class attack submarine programme, the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine programme and development work on the future SSN(X), placing extraordinary concurrent demands on a constrained industrial base.

The UK’s Astute-class Anson in Western Australia (image: BAE Systems)

 

China, by contrast, is demonstrating the strategic advantages of scale, having launched 10 nuclear-powered submarines between 2021 and 2025, surpassing the US in both hull numbers and total launched displacement. Major expansion at Bohai Shipbuilding’s Huludao yard has enabled simultaneous production of the Type 093B and Type 094 classes, underpinned by vertically integrated supply chains, state-backed financing and a significantly larger skilled workforce. The strategic concern for Western planners is increasingly centred on industrial tempo, production resilience and fleet mass, rather than individual platform performance.

 

The contest extends well beyond two powers. Russia continues to prioritise its Borei and Yasen-M programmes despite sanctions and industrial constraints, with Arctic and North Atlantic operations the strategic focus.

 

France sustains two parallel nuclear programmes, the Suffren-class SSNs and the Le Triomphant-class SSBNs, while maintaining a strong export position through the Scorpene design. Germany and Sweden remain among the most technically influential conventional submarine designers, with ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems driving advances in air-independent propulsion (AIP) and low-signature construction through the Type 212CD, and Saab Kockums developing the A26 Blekinge class, which secured its first export customer in Poland in 2025.

 

India’s indigenous nuclear submarine programme has reached a significant milestone with the commissioning of INS Aridhaman in April 2026 and the fourth Arihant-class boat now in sea trials. South Korea has emerged as one of the most competitive builders in the world, with the KSS-III programme demonstrating a high degree of indigenous capability and Korean yards now in the final running for Canada’s US$40 billion submarine replacement programme.

 

For much of the post-Cold War period, Western navies prioritised small numbers of increasingly sophisticated platforms. That assumption is now being challenged by the realities of persistent maritime competition, Indo-Pacific scale, Atlantic and Arctic commitments, infrastructure protection requirements and sustained readiness demands. Capability alone is insufficient without industrial resilience, sustainment capacity and workforce depth.

 

Cutting steel for new submarines (image: BAE Systems)

The AUKUS framework

As capability shifts from standalone platforms toward interoperability and integrated, distributed systems, more countries are taking a collaborative approach to construction and operation. The most significant example is AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, designed to support Australia in acquiring its first conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet amid growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Australia’s SSN-AUKUS boats will be based on the UK’s next-generation SSN Astute-class successor but incorporate technologies from all three nations, built in both the UK and Australia, with work scheduled to start by 2030. The first submarine is expected to enter service towards the end of the 2030s in the UK and the early 2040s in Australia, with both nations operating the class on a rotational basis under Submarine Rotational Force – West at HMAS Stirling near Perth.

 

The first significant US contract under AUKUS was awarded in late 2025, with Electric Boat securing US$196 million for engineering, technical and design-transfer work, marking a shift from political commitment to funded industrial delivery. In May, Babcock International announced a partnership with US defence prime HII to manufacture complex submarine components at its Rosyth facility in Scotland, relieving pressure on the US naval supply chain while reinforcing industrial integration under the framework.

 

Australian industry is now being drawn into the supply chain at scale. PMB Defence will partner with BAE Systems to integrate its advanced nickel zinc battery system into the SSN-AUKUS design and supply battery technology for other Royal Navy submarines. Nuclear propulsion will be delivered by Rolls-Royce, with the PWR3 reactor, designed for the UK’s Dreadnought class, expected to be adapted for SSN-AUKUS. Rolls-Royce has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Victoria to develop Australia’s defence industry skills, supply chain and innovation ecosystem.

 

Astute and dreadnought

AUKUS has breathed new life into Britain’s naval shipbuilding. BAE Systems is running the Astute and Dreadnought programmes simultaneously at Barrow-in-Furness, where the workforce has grown to more than 16,000 people, compared to fewer than 10,000 a decade ago.

BAE’s shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, where the workforce is now 16,000 (image: BAE Systems)

 

The Astute class, a seven-boat fleet of 97m-long, 7,400-tonne displacement hunter-killers, is nearing completion. HMS Agamemnon, the sixth boat, completed a successful first dive in October 2025. To measure the centre of gravity during the trim and basin dive, 16tonnes of lead weights are brought onboard and moved side-to-side, measured using pendulums hung between decks, a method used by naval architects since the 1700s.

 

HMS Achilles, the final boat, is scheduled for commissioning in 2028. All boats are the first Royal Navy submarines designed entirely in 3D CAD and the first without optical periscopes, using high-specification video technology instead. Each carries Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes, powered by a Rolls-Royce PWR2 nuclear reactor with a 90-day dive endurance.

 

All four 153.6m-long, 17,200-tonne displacement Dreadnoughts, the new generation of SSBNs designed to replace the Vanguard class in the early 2030s, are at various stages of construction. First steel was cut on the fourth and final boat, King George VI, in September last year. Each is built in 16 units grouped into three mega-units to optimise the build timeframe, with a designed service life of 35 to 40 years, some 50% longer than the Vanguard class. Each boat is equipped to launch 12 Trident II D5 ballistic missiles and Spearfish torpedoes, powered by the PWR3 with reactor cores designed to operate for 20 years without refuelling and with 30% fewer parts than the PWR2. In January 2025, Rolls-Royce was awarded a £9 billion MoD contract covering research, design, manufacture and support of all nuclear reactors in Royal Navy submarines.

 

Nuclear stewardship and the balance of fleets

Nuclear stewardship is itself becoming a defining strategic capability, requiring reactor expertise, regulatory oversight, nuclear-certified supply chains, specialised dockyard infrastructure, waste handling, emergency preparedness and highly trained engineering workforces sustained over multiple generations. The UK, France, the United States, India, China and Russia all face similar long-term challenges in sustaining this at scale, and the burden is one reason why conventionally powered submarines remain strategically important.

 

A keel-laying ceremony for a Dreadnought-class submarine at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard (image: BAE Systems)

Advances in AIP, battery technology and quieting have made modern diesel-electric submarines exceptionally capable in littoral and regional operations. They are generally faster to build and allow greater fleet mass for nations seeking credible deterrence without the burden of a full nuclear enterprise. The continued export success of the Scorpene design and the growing competitiveness of South Korean and Japanese programmes partly reflects this calculus. Many nations are converging on mixed fleets that combine nuclear reach, conventional mass and autonomous persistence.

 

The evolving battlespace

The underwater battlespace now extends well beyond traditional submarine operations into hybrid warfare, persistent surveillance, cyber-enabled disruption and the protection of seabed infrastructure. The Nord Stream incident and subsequent European seabed security reviews have accelerated investment in distributed sensing, autonomous patrol systems and infrastructure monitoring. NATO’s establishment of a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Coordination Cell underlines the vulnerability of underwater cables, pipelines and distributed sensor networks, and governments across Europe and the Indo-Pacific are responding with dedicated investment in seabed domain awareness.

 

The rise of autonomous underwater systems is accelerating innovation while creating new engineering and assurance challenges, particularly where defence and commercial activity converge. Modern underwater platforms are becoming software-defined, digitally integrated systems that must remain adaptable across decades of technological change while operating in increasingly contested electromagnetic, cyber and acoustic environments. The disciplinary breadth required now spans naval architecture, software engineering, autonomy, nuclear engineering, systems engineering, hydrodynamics, acoustics, cyber security, advanced manufacturing, digital twin development and human factors.

 

Agamemnon takes a trim dive to confirm the submarine’s centre of gravity (image: BAE Systems)

Workforce shortages are among the most acute strategic challenges facing the sector. Competition is intense globally for engineers, nuclear specialists, software developers and advanced manufacturing expertise. The Rolls-Royce and Siemens collaboration on the Dreadnought programme, sharing best practice across the digital landscape to enhance engineering, manufacturing, R&D, training and reactor operation, is one model for how industry is responding.

 

Global transformation

The real story of the underwater arms race is not a procurement narrative. It is a global transformation of the undersea domain, driven by industrial strategy, hybrid threats, workforce evolution, nuclear stewardship and the convergence of nuclear, conventional and autonomous capability. These are the forces that will shape the future of naval architecture and the wider maritime profession for decades to come.

AUKUS STRENGTHENED WITH HMS ANSON SMP   A key milestone in the AUKUS collaboration was reached in February this year when HMS Anson docked at Western Australia’s HMAS Stirling for scheduled maintenance, representing the first time Australia had carried out work on a UK nuclear-powered submarine. Australian personnel worked alongside partners from the UK and the US on maintenance and familiarisation activities, building on experience gained from work on US Virginia-class submarines USS Vermont in 2025 and USS Hawaii in 2024. Participation in the UK Submarine Maintenance Period, ahead of the establishment of SRF-West at HMAS Stirling from 2027, will further build Australia’s familiarity with UK-designed submarines as the country prepares to begin construction of SSN-AUKUS in Adelaide by the end of the decade.

 

This article appeared in Submarines, TNA May/June 2026.

Polar planning

The Arctic is warming roughly four times faster than the global average, making shipping lanes that were theoretical a decade ago commercially viable sooner than even optimistic projections suggested.

 

Geopolitics is also driving increased interest in these waters. The Northern Sea Route not only offers transit times some 30 to 40% shorter between the Far East and Europe than traditional Red Sea routes, it also avoids conflict zones, piracy hotspots and strategic bottlenecks. In a volatile world, nations are taking their Arctic territories more seriously, particularly given their resource potential. The Arctic holds vast reserves of oil, gas and critical minerals, but the vessels and infrastructure to support extraction don’t yet exist at the required scale.

 

“The Arctic in particular feels like it’s moved almost overnight from a specialist niche to one of the most contested and commercially significant maritime regions on the planet,” says Lee Grace, business development manager, North America, at maritime engineering consultancy BMT. 

A Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker with its distinctive red-and-white livery (image: Getty images/Canadian Coast Guard)

 

The range of vessels on the order books tells a story. On the commercial side, bulk carriers and containerships are exploring trans-Arctic routes as summer ice-free windows arrive earlier than predicted. Research ships are in demand as governments fund deeper understanding of these environments. And icebreakers, the heavy-duty workhorses that make everything else possible, are suddenly high on procurement agendas.

 

“Most western nations look at their fleets and see a significant capability gap,” says Grace. “Arctic patrol vessels for coastguard and sovereignty missions are another major driver, and increasingly we’re seeing something genuinely new: serious interest in purpose-designed autonomous vessels for persistent polar monitoring.”

 

Arto Uuskallio, head of sales and marketing at Railotech, the Finnish icebreaking specialist, says that although there are currently four different Polar Class 2 vessels under construction, most customers are looking for vessels with carefully tailored ice capability. By this he means designs that combine “adequate ice performance with good open-water efficiency and seakeeping properties, rather than designs optimised only for extreme year-round Arctic conditions”.

 

He says: “A record number of diverse ice-capable vessel projects are under development, with several more in the pipeline,” adding that the strongest demand is in government and coastguard ships, and research, cargo and logistics vessels.

 

New ice risks

Ice-class ships aren’t new, but the design challenges are becoming more complex. “The environment is changing faster than the design codes that govern how we build for it,” says Grace.

Carving a transit channel through Arctic pack ice (image: Getty images/Canadian Coast Guard)

 

Traditionally, ice-class design meant designing for a relatively predictable adversary: thick pack ice. The answer was largely about strength: heavier frames, reinforced plating at the waterline and bow forms built to break through. But climate change has made that adversary far less consistent.

 

“The older, thicker multi-year ice is reducing, but what’s replacing it isn’t simply open water – it’s a more dynamic mix of younger first-year ice, refreezing floes, shifting leads and unpredictable ice edges,” Grace says. “Paradoxically, a partially ice-covered Arctic can be more dangerous than a heavily iced one, because the behaviour is so much less predictable.”

 

Designers also need to take a long view. The Arctic in 2050 could look very different from today. This is where digital twin technology comes into its own, to test hull form and propulsion choices against future climate scenarios before committing to a physical design.

 

Understanding the ice type matters, with the spectrum running from thin, newly formed nilas ice through first-year ice, typically up to 1.5m thick after one winter’s growth, to old, multi-year ice that has survived at least one summer melt.

 

“Designing a vessel for breaking 50cm ice is fundamentally different from designing for 250cm level ice,” says Uuskallio. “These differences affect hull strength, propulsion power, material selection, equipment makers, machinery design, winterisation and even basic layout choices.”

 

There is also an important structural trade-off: the more ice-capable a vessel needs to be, the heavier its structure must become – reducing the internal volume available for cargo, mission systems and crew spaces.

 

Ice conditions are highly variable. A vessel may encounter level ice, ridges, brash ice and pressure zones within the same voyage, each imposing different loads on the hull, propulsion and steering systems. “This variability makes it essential to clearly define the ice conditions and operational assumptions at the very beginning of the design process,” says Uuskallio.

 

A hull optimised for breaking solid pack ice performs very differently from one optimised for open-water efficiency and seakeeping. Shorter ice seasons mean vessels now spend more time in open water and getting that balance right across a much wider range of conditions is the central design challenge.

 

Increased ice strength and power improve safety and reliability in ice, but they also add weight, resistance, fuel consumption and emissions in open-water operation. Achieving a well-balanced design that meets the most demanding requirements without overdesigning for less critical ones is the core challenge.

 

In Atlantic Canada, this hull-form tension is particularly acute on the east coast, where ships frequently transit to the high Arctic through summer and autumn, then return to the North Atlantic, one of the harshest open-ocean wave environments in the world.

“A hull optimised for icebreaking tends to roll heavily in open seas,” says Grace. “Conventional stabilisers and bilge keels can’t be fitted due to ice damage risk.”

 

Double-acting ships, as pioneered by Railotech, designed to break ice astern, freeing the bow for a more conventional form and better seakeeping, haven’t yet been tried in Canada. It’s a concept that “deserves serious consideration”, notes Grace. 

 

Forging innovation

The challenges of ice-infested waters are fertile ground for innovative design features. These include the ice knife – a structural bow feature that splits and directs broken ice under the vessel. It features in Canada’s new heavy icebreaker under construction at Seaspan. Heeling tanks allow a vessel to rock itself free when trapped in ice while air bubble systems thrust compressed air through ports at the bow to reduce friction, complementing bow lubrication systems. And oblique icebreaking – achieved through an asymmetrical hull form – allows a vessel to open a channel wider than its own beam, useful for following traffic.

 

“Advanced hull forms and propulsion concepts, such as double-acting operation, allow ships to achieve good open-water efficiency and to handle demanding ice conditions when required,” says Uuskallio. “Improved numerical methods, particularly nonlinear finite element analysis, combined with extensive full-scale measurement data are enabling more accurate assessment of ice loads. This makes it possible to optimise structures so they are lighter and safer, without simply increasing ice class as a conservative solution.”

 

Real-time data is key. Fed into digital twin models it can create a continuous picture of hull condition and predict maintenance needs before they become failures. “When the nearest drydock is thousands of miles away, that capability is operationally essential,” says Grace, who also highlights the importance of increased satellite coverage and communications equipment in these remote waters.

Vessels may encounter level ice, ridges, brash ice and pressure zones on the same trip (image: Getty images/Canadian Coast Guard)

 

Bear necessities

If something goes wrong in the polar regions, the search and rescue response time is measured in days, not hours. Designers need to ensure there are fully enclosed, thermally insulated lifeboats that can sustain survivors for extended periods in extreme cold, and medical facilities that can manage serious trauma without rapid evacuation.

 

And while not usually the subject of naval architecture, “the vessel’s freeboard needs to be high enough to prevent polar bears from boarding,” says Grace. 

 

 

Research vessel

 

Onboard one of the world’s most advanced polar research ships.

RRS Sir David Attenborough, operated by the British Antarctic Survey, began service in 2021 and feedback from the scientists onboard has been very positive, says Kongsberg Maritime designer Erik Leenders.

 

He points out polar research vessels pose specific challenges for naval architects, as these ships combine multiple functions. Sir David Attenborough, for example, is a cargo ship loaded with 20ft containers, a product tanker carrying diesel and aviation fuel, a ‘passenger’ ship for 60 scientists and a research ship with bespoke laboratories, moonpool and ROVs – not to mention being a Polar Ice Class 5 (Hull PC4) icebreaker, which can operate year-round in medium, first-year ice, breaking through ice 1m thick at a speed of 3knots (5.6km/h).

RSS Sir David Attenborough

 

The £200 million ship is deployed to the Arctic during the northern summer and to the Antarctic during the austral summer. “It travels from the northern hemisphere to the tropics to 40, 50, 60°,” explains Leenders. “Icebreaker hulls do not tend to be very good seakeeping hulls so we did a lot of tests in the ice tank and seakeeping tank to check the hull design. We’ve had very good feedback from the crew about its handling and, of course, it is rated to a very high comfort class (LR: CAC1), with a lot of focus on space, noise and vibration, because the crews spend a really long time onboard.”

 

The ship has a helipad and hangar for two helicopters, cranes and an enhanced ability to deploy subs and other ocean-survey and sampling equipment.

 

This article appeared in Designing for Extremes, TNA May/June 2026.

On the rocks in Canada

On 15 February 2025 the containership Baltic III ran aground off the west coast of Newfoundland during a severe storm. The vessel encountered mechanical difficulties and lost power, becoming ‘dead in the water’, and was driven into Cedar Cove, a remote and rocky location near Lark Harbour.

 

All 20 seafarers onboard were safely evacuated by a Cormorant search and rescue helicopter but the vessel was left against a 1,000ft cliff, in a very remote location, facing extreme weather and ice conditions. Over the following year the vessel suffered severe damage, with a large hole in its port side, and has been in danger of breaking up amidships.

 

The first phase

It was clear from the outset that salvage was going to be a difficult and complex operation. The shipowner, MSC, and its insurers appointed T&T Marine Salvage to lead the first phase of operations. During this period of work around 1,700m³ of fuel oil was removed from Baltic III, with around 20tonnes of residual fuel and contaminated water still onboard. Additionally, 409 of the 472 containers onboard were taken off the ship, including some containing dangerous goods, leaving 63 remaining. 

Baltic III’s precarious position in Cedar Cove next to a 1,000ft cliff makes salvage operations difficult (image: Canadian Coast Guard)

 

The salvage team needed to construct a road to the site to get some equipment alongside and a cableway was erected with a basket underneath to transport the salvage crew back and forth.

 

Thankfully, no bunker oil was released during the incident and any tar balls were collected as they were encountered. Nonetheless, the presence of the vessel poses a serious potential environmental hazard and the delay in removing the vessel has attracted some local concern and criticism.

 

However, as Bruce English, senior response officer, Canadian Coast Guard, who has been supervising the Canadian government’s response to the operation, observes: “We did not want a rush job, but the right job.”

 

Dive surveys confirmed that the structural condition of the vessel made a simple refloat impossible. The structural deterioration of the vessel has continued, presenting significant engineering challenges.

 

According to English, “While the vessel is currently stable, it is in poor condition. There is significant damage to the hull, including a crack in the port side and buckling on the starboard side. There is also a worsening crack on the deck of the vessel.

 

“Operations are expected to continue for some time. Speed is not the primary goal. Our focus remains on ensuring the safety of Canadians and responders while minimising impact to the environment.”

 

In early May this year the Coast Guard confirmed that the operation was now moving into the wreck removal phase, following the award of a contract by MSC to experienced Florida-based salvors Resolve Marine for the completion of the remaining salvage work and the removal of the wreck from Cedar Cove.

Transporting the salvage crew to and from the stricken vessel (image: Canadian Coast Guard)

 

The Coast Guard’s role in the process is to review the proposed wreck removal plan to ensure that it is “reasonable and appropriate” to protect public safety and the marine environment. English points out that Canada follows the ‘polluter pays’ principle where vessel owners are responsible for the cost of addressing any pollution or hazards posed by their vessel and this includes any costs relating to cleanup.

 

Breaking up is hard to do

Resolve Marine will now embark on initial preparatory work, following a full onboard assessment and environmental investigation. It will weld rigging points to the vessel and separate the hull at the mid-section point where the break is occurring. It will then remove the remaining containers, using a crane barge that will be deployed on site.

 

Resolve Marine proposes to use chain pullers to pull the bow section to a nearby beach. This will be followed by scrapping work, involving cutting the topside in dry conditions, as well as removal of the residual fuel and tank cleaning. The bow section will be pulled forward to the beach in stages.

 

All topside steel that can be reached in the initial stage will be cut and removed. The section will then be pulled forward again and the process repeated, until completion. The steel will be cut into 10tonne segments, which will then be transported to a local facility, Newco Metal & Auto Recycling, for recycling.

 

In parallel, preparations for the stern removal will be carried out, with the goal of clearing it from the rocks. Resolve Marine plans to cut forward of the engine room and then remove the accommodation block. The middle section, weighing around 2,000tonnes, will be pulled to the beach for cutting, removal and recycling, while the 3,000tonne stern section will be rotated clear from the rocks and removed to shore. This may involve cutting the stern section into two, depending on the conditions encountered during the work.

 

Better access

The expectation is that having built an access road to the beach, Resolve Marine will be able to start moving the rest of the cargo ashore this summer. It then aims to pull the bow to shore using the chain pullers, and to remove the remaining fuel oil.

 

The timeline for the potential completion of all scrapping operations is some time in 2027, with Resolve Marine committing to undertake as much work as possible before the end of 2026.

Alternatives to the chain-puller-based solution, including the removal of the vessel by sea, were considered. However, they were ultimately rejected because of the weather conditions and marine challenges at this location.

 

Why the delays?

While there is great relief that after more than a year there is at last a plan for the wreck’s removal, some are questioning whether the process could have been quicker. There are also concerns about what seems to be a lack of urgency and transparency in investigating the cause of the accident, thereby allowing lessons to be learned and remedial actions taken.

 

John Dalziel MRINA is a naval architect and an adjunct professor in industrial engineering, with more than half a century of marine industry experience, most of it in eastern Canada, including Newfoundland. He has raised a number of issues with the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) regarding this incident.

 

In particular, he says: “I am somewhat perplexed as to why the TSB has decided not to investigate this incident, whereas it has investigated other foreign flag ship incidents in Canadian waters, including two previous MSC vessels. We don’t know the timeline from vessel blackout till its grounding nor whether TSB or Transport Canada are aware of the cause of the blackout.”

Baltic III is now in poor condition with significant damage to the hull (image: Canadian Coast Guard)

 

He points out that from visual images the ship’s anchors do not appear to have been deployed, which raises questions over how the crew responded to the emergency.

 

Professor Dalziel also questions whether Baltic III could have been floated off the beach at an earlier stage, prior to breaking up.

 

“As the stern of the ship remained in deep water, perhaps a couple of powerful salvage tugs or offshore supply vessels could have been used to tow it off the beach, floating on its tank tops if bottom damage was encountered. I would certainly welcome the TSB, or other federal agency, investigating the handling of the salvage efforts, considering that the ship has now been on the beach for more than 14 months, including over a Newfoundland winter.”

 

A weather eye

At this stage the TSB appears to be taking a watching brief. A spokesman says: “In line with the Casualty Investigation Code, the flag state of the ship has a duty to conduct an investigation into any very serious marine casualty occurring to any of its ships. Therefore, Liberia, as the flag State of Baltic III, is leading the investigation into the grounding and TSB is representing Canada as a substantially interested state.”

 

The case of the grounding of Baltic III, and its subsequent salvage, certainly raises a number of interesting and important technical and safety-related issues. While the immediate priority has to be its removal, in what will clearly be a challenging operation, hopefully in time the full circumstances of the incident, and the decisions surrounding its salvage, will be aired in a thorough and transparent manner.

 

This article appeared in Salvage operations, TNA May/June 2026.

My focus as President

Welcome to the latest issue of The Naval Architect. I am honoured to have been elected President of RINA, and I would like to thank members for the confidence and trust you have placed in me. I also want to acknowledge my predecessor, Cat Savage, our first female president, whose leadership and professionalism have helped strengthen RINA and position it strongly for the future. 

 

My maritime story began in Durban Harbour in South Africa. As a child, I spent time on the water surrounded by commercial shipping and naval vessels. I still remember the scale of those ships and the fascination I felt watching them move through the harbour. That experience left a lasting impression and shaped the direction of my career. By the time university approached, I knew I wanted to become a naval architect.

 

Since then, I have been fortunate to work across government, defence, consultancy, industry and the third sector. My career has included naval engineering, safety assurance, capability delivery, maritime acquisition and complex programme leadership, most recently in major submarine capability programmes. I have seen first-hand the extraordinary quality of our maritime workforce and the increasing pressures on it.

 

Today’s maritime sector faces profound change. Technological disruption, digitalisation, sustainability pressures, geopolitical instability and workforce shortages are reshaping our profession and the demands placed on it. Competition for talent is global, specialist expertise is becoming harder to replace, and the pace of technological change is accelerating faster than many traditional professional models were designed to support.

 

These challenges reinforce why professional institutions matter.

 

RINA’s purpose remains as relevant today as it was in 1860: to advance the science and art of naval architecture and maritime engineering. But our role today extends beyond preserving standards alone. We must also help build a modern, internationally connected professional community capable of supporting innovation, professional confidence, technical excellence and long-term resilience across the maritime sector.

 

As president, my role is not operational delivery. The governance responsibilities are clear. My responsibility is to represent the voice of the membership, contribute strategic insight and support RINA’s long-term direction. The presidency also carries an important ambassadorial responsibility, and I look forward to engaging actively with our divisions, branches and members around the world.

 

My priorities over the next two years focus on three areas. First, supporting the Institution’s long-term sustainability and strengthening alignment behind our mission, leadership and global network.

 

Second, strengthening services, visibility and career support across the membership, particularly for younger professionals, early careers and associated disciplines. That means listening carefully to members, supporting stronger engagement and ensuring RINA continues to provide meaningful value throughout careers.

 

Third, continuing to build a culture of professionalism, inclusivity, high standards and international outlook. Strong professional institutions are built on trusted communities that welcome talent, encourage debate, share knowledge and support one another across disciplines and career stages.

 

Above all, I want to work collaboratively with members, partners and the wider maritime community to ensure the Institution continues to deliver relevance, confidence and impact for the future.

This article appeared in President’s View, TNA May/June 2026

MIT lab improves human and AUV interactions

Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the US are developing hardware and algorithms to improve collaboration between human divers and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), with potential applications ranging from subsea cable inspection to countermine operations. The project, carried out by the lab’s Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology Group, seeks to combine the respective strengths of humans and robots in demanding underwater environments.

 

As principal investigator Madeline Miller notes, divers and AUVs generally do not team up at all underwater. Manipulation tasks requiring human dexterity, such as repairing infrastructure or deactivating a mine, fall entirely to the diver, while robotic systems offer advantages in processing power, endurance and high-speed mobility that remain largely unexploited in such missions.

 

The research addresses two fundamental capability gaps: underwater navigation and perception. Divers operating in low-visibility or deep conditions may have little more than a compass and fin-kick counts to guide them. For AUVs to assist meaningfully, they must perceive their environment reliably, yet optical sensors fail in dark or turbid water, and sonar imagery lacks colour and fine detail. The dynamic ocean environment can also confuse AI classification, as when a tyre overgrown with mussels no longer resembles a tyre, or a fragmented wreck no longer looks like an aircraft.

Humans and technology working together in the undersea domain (image: MIT)

 

The team built on navigation algorithms originally developed by MIT’s Marine Robotics Group, led by Professor John Leonard, integrating them into a mission-relevant AUV and progressing to trials with actual divers in open-ocean conditions. On the perception side, an AI classifier processes both optical and sonar data mid-mission, flagging low-confidence objects to the diver for human input via an underwater acoustic modem. A central engineering challenge is compressing information sufficiently to be useful within the severe bandwidth and latency constraints of underwater acoustic communications, while keeping hardware within the size, weight and power envelope of commercial off-the-shelf components.

 

After field trials in coastal New England waters and with human divers at Michigan Technological University’s Great Lakes Research Center, the team is seeking external sponsorship to transition the technology to military or commercial partners.

 

MIT’s Miller highlights the vulnerability of subsea telecommunications and power cable infrastructure as a key driver, noting that maintaining advantage in the undersea domain will require combining AI capability with human judgement.

 

This article appeared in Insights, TNA May/June 2026

We are on the right path

When I took on the RINA presidency in 2022, I set out three broad ambitions: to widen the pipeline of people coming into naval architecture and marine engineering, to sharpen RINA’s thought leadership, and to make the institution more relevant, more modern and more visible. Four years on, with two terms complete, I can say with confidence that progress has been made, while being equally clear that there is more still to do.

 

The word “relevance” has been something of a touchstone throughout my presidency. Professional institutions, like any organisation, can fall out of step with the communities they serve. My encouragement to anyone who perhaps drifted away from RINA, or who holds a picture of what we were, rather than what we are, is simply this: come and take another look. We have changed, and we may now offer what you need.

 

Some of that change is operational. We have steadily moved towards web-enabled systems, better digital communications, and an increasingly capable and diverse board. The transformation is far from complete, but the direction of travel is clear, and our new CEO, Paul Jobson, who joined about a year ago through a rigorous external recruitment process, is driving that transformation with real purpose. The board’s role in his appointment was deliberate: we recognised that we could support outward-facing engagement and member communications ourselves, but that we needed a leader with deep operational experience to run the Institution effectively. I am confident that we made the right call.

 

I am also proud of the Developing Careers Committee, which we established during my presidency. Led by younger council members, including founding members Chris McNair and Chris Baker, the committee covers everything from STEM outreach to early career mentoring and support. It has been impressively active, and it reflects my conviction that broadening the language around engineering, for teachers, parents and young people alike, is essential.

 

Skills such as spatial reasoning and creative problem-solving are the lifeblood of our profession, yet they are rarely celebrated in the school curriculum. If we can reach young people earlier and help them recognise themselves as potential engineers, we will build a stronger and more diverse community.

 

Looking back at the industry over the same four years, the pace of change is striking. Digital systems, AI, autonomy, and advanced visualisation techniques that would have seemed ambitious or niche in 2022 are increasingly routine. The speed of that transition is the defining characteristic, not simply the scale of it.

 

On sustainability, the picture is more complex. The geopolitical context has shifted, and some of the optimism around future fuels and energy efficiency has been tested and challenged. However, I do not expect momentum on that front to stall and what encourages me is the intensity of innovation, with smarter energy management systems, digital optimisation, efficient hull forms and a broader spectrum of energy-saving devices coming to market. The maritime industry needs to focus on the long investment horizon that turns today’s R&D into tomorrow’s reality.

 

On a personal note, I am the first woman to serve as RINA president, and had always hoped to be the first of many. This is already proving to be the case with Annabelle Ransome-Williams set to take over. She brings tremendous experience, enthusiasm and passion for naval architecture and for the Institution. I have no doubt she will continue to drive forward the initiatives we have started, and then some.

 

Author profile

Catriona Savage, outgoing RINA president and global technical director at BMT.

This article appeared in Opinion, TNA May-June 2026.

Success on a plate

Designing a passenger ferry for the River Niger means confronting a particular set of constraints: variable water depth as shallow as 0.89m, shifting channels, water hyacinth overgrowth, subsurface wrecks and piracy on the Lokoja–Onitsha route.

 

The winning entry in the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association’s (WFSA) 13th Annual International Student Design Competition For Safe Affordable Ferries addressed all of them, and did so with a hull form and construction method chosen specifically to be buildable by a Nigerian shipyard.

 

First prize went to Nagapasa, a 10-member team from Universitas Indonesia led by Felicia Rachel Taruli Siregar, who also oversaw the ferry’s structural arrangement. Their design, MV Safarind, is a 36m flat-bottomed steel catamaran with a service speed of 27knots, capable of carrying 200 passengers and their cargo on each leg of the 200km route in approximately four hours.

Team Nagapasa, winners of the Safe Affordable Ferries competition (image: Universitas Indonesia)

 

The competition asks university teams to develop safe, affordable ferry concepts for inland and coastal routes in developing countries, where ageing vessels, overcrowding and poorly designed hulls frequently cause accidents and loss of life. Nigeria has provided the backdrop for the third year running, attracting 18 submissions in the 2025-2026 competition.

 

Flat-plate construction

The catamaran configuration was chosen to deliver high transverse stability and a larger passenger deck area within the shallow-draught constraint, with better tolerance to passenger overloading than many conventional inland vessel forms. The decision to use an all-flat-plate steel hull was driven by the capability of the shipyard likely to build it.

 

Nagapasa designed MV Safarind specifically for construction at the Nigerian Naval Shipyard in Port Harcourt, and flat-plate construction avoids compound curvature and complex plate rolling, reducing fabrication cost and allowing the vessel to be built using conventional steel-working equipment. It also supports easier structural repair, a relevant factor on a route where grounding and debris impacts are a routine operational hazard.

 

Buildability is a requirement of the WFSA competition, which aims to ensure that every entry has a realistic chance of being constructed. In Nagapasa’s case it shaped not just the fabrication method but the entire design process.

 

“We defined a target investment envelope based on expected passenger fares, route demand and typical inland ferry-operating economics, and used that as a boundary condition throughout,” Siregar says. “Major design parameters, vessel size, passenger capacity, propulsion power, structural configuration and onboard systems were continuously evaluated, not only for technical performance but also for constructability, maintainability and lifecycle operating cost.”

MV Safarind was designed for shallow-draught operations on the River Niger (image: Universitas Indonesia)

 

Flat-plate hulls are not the most hydrodynamically efficient geometry, and the team used CFD-based hull refinement to recover some of that deficit within the constraints of buildability. Optimising the bow entry and bottom geometry reduced total resistance by 6.8%, compared with the baseline configuration.

 

Power options

The team selected four petrol-fuelled Yamaha F450 XTO outboard engines, each rated 450hp (336kW), as the primary propulsion system. The decision was grounded in hydrodynamic resistance analysis, but the outboard configuration also eliminates underwater appendages vulnerable to damage from submerged objects and vegetation, reduces machinery complexity, simplifies inspection and maintenance, and improves redundancy through independent units. A diesel-electric system capable of the same performance, Siregar notes, would have added complexity and capital costs.

 

The energy balance at 27knots with four large outboards is demanding, and the hybrid element of the design addresses auxiliary and hotel loads rather than propulsion. MV Safarind would carry a battery pack rated just under 737kWh, supplemented by roof-mounted solar panels contributing 11% of auxiliary electricity demand, with generators providing backup during periods of high load. Recharge time is estimated at four hours. The hybrid system is expected to reduce fuel consumption by 58,000litres per year, equivalent to an annual CO₂ reduction of 138.6tonnes, based on the vessel’s load analysis and operational profile.

 

Intact and probabilistic damage stability analyses were performed using Maxsurf Stability in accordance with the IMO High-Speed Craft Code and MSC.216(82) requirements. Manoeuvrability was assessed using a turning diameter model appropriate for narrow inland waterways, and evacuation analysis followed IMO MSC.1/Circ.1238 guidelines. Structural sizing was developed against Bureau Veritas scantling rules, supported by a 3D structural model.

 

“Beyond hydrodynamic efficiency, we evaluated the vessel’s safety and operational performance using established naval architecture methods,” Siregar says.

TECHNICAL PARTICULARS MV SAFARIND
Length overall	35.85m
Length between perpendiculars	34.5m
Breadth overall	8m
Breadth, demi-hull	2.4m
Demi-hull, centreline spacing	2.8m
Depth	2.5m
Design draught	0.8m
Air draught	5.31
Displacement	81.33tonnes
Lightweight	58.28tonnes
Deadweight	23.05dwt
Service speed	27knots
Crew	7
Passengers	200

 

Safety and security

Navigation on the Lokoja–Onitsha route requires continuous depth awareness. The team specified echo sounders and forward-looking sonar for hazard detection alongside GPS, radar, AIS, weather-monitoring software and CCTV-based situational awareness – a layered approach to a route affected by sediment movement, floating vegetation and changing channel conditions.

 

Piracy is a persistent threat on the route. MV Safarind would carry a security alert system for discreet distress signalling, high-pressure water cannons on both sides of the upper deck, and an enclosed passenger layout with anti-climb barriers at the stern. SOLAS-compliant life-saving appliances and clearly marked escape routes complete the safety arrangement.

 

Following its win, Nagapasa was invited to present MV Safarind at the WFSA’s Ferry Safety and Technology Conference in New York in May.

 

Why Nigeria?

 

Figures from the Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa show that 8,000 ferry-related fatalities were recorded in the region in 2015-2025, with Nigeria heavily affected. This prompted the country to take action.

 

For instance, the Lagos State Waterways Authority, which oversees nearly 730 licensed ferries, has cracked down on operators who flaunt passenger overcrowding checks, fail to carry lifejackets and embark on night-time journeys, directly enforcing the rules with jet ski patrols. Meanwhile, the US$464 million, partly EU-supported Omi Eko project will introduce 78 modern electric ferries, upgrade terminals and add new floating jetties to further improve safety. This appetite for change has made Lagos a focal point for both the WFSA and industry association Interferry.

This article appeared in Ferry safety, TNA May/June 2026.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baltic first for carbon capture and storage

Aker Solutions has been awarded a front-end engineering and design contract by KN Energies for a CO₂ transshipment terminal in Klaipėda, Lithuania, forming part of the first cross-border carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) network in the Baltic region.

 

The planned terminal, recognised as a project of common interest by the European Commission and co-funded under the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility, is designed to receive CO₂ from industrial sources across Lithuania, Latvia and the wider Baltic region. With a planned capacity of approximately 2.8 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, the facility will provide temporary storage before the CO₂ is transported by ship to long-term geological storage sites beneath the North Sea seabed.

 

Under the FEED contract, Aker Solutions will refine the technical design specification of the planned infrastructure, building on earlier phase evaluations, and assess potential expansion routes. The FEED phase is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2026, involving more than 100 Aker Solutions employees in Norway, India and the UK. A final investment decision is planned for 2027, with a targeted commercial operational date of 2030.

 

Aker Solutions has been designing and delivering CO₂ infrastructure since the 1990s, with experience spanning the full CCS value chain from carbon capture integration through to transport, terminal infrastructure and permanent storage. The Klaipėda project adds to a portfolio that includes the Northern Lights, Brevik and Oslo CCS programmes.

 

KN Energies is an energy terminal operator managing liquid energy and liquefied natural gas flows across the Baltic Sea region.

 

 

New boat takes electric power to the next level

 

The “most powerful electric escort tug in the world” has completed sea trials, marking what battery maker AYK Energy describes as a significant milestone in the electric workboat sector.

 

Svitzer Balder, built by Uzmar Shipyard in Türkiye, is the first battery-methanol harbour tug ever built and is capable of operating in near-open ocean as well as harbour conditions. The vessel is now set for delivery to the Port of Gothenburg, Sweden, where it will carry out more than 90% of its towing and docking operations on zero-emission battery-electric power, with dual-fuel methanol engines for back-up and range extension.

 

AYK supplied the vessel with an ABS-certified AriesA 6MWh battery system, built at its plant in Zhuhai, China. The system uses lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cell technology rather than the nickel, manganese, cobalt chemistry, a choice AYK says delivers competitive energy density and power at lower cost and with improved safety. AYK was the first manufacturer to secure a type-approved marine battery using LFP technology.

 

Svitzer Balder is the fifth Svitzer tug to use AYK battery systems, reflecting growing demand across the maritime sector.

 

 

These articles appeared in Insights, TNA May/June 2026

We'd better be ready for AI

A global race is under way to turn artificial intelligence into an economic and strategic advantage. With the US scaling frontier-model capability at speed, China pushing scale and deployment, and the European Union trying to pair regulation with a late but sizeable infrastructure push, the UK is debating not just AI strategy, but where the compute, energy and investment conditions will come from and who will control them.

 

For engineering sectors such as naval architecture, this matters because access to compute and trustworthy models will increasingly shape who can innovate quickly, simulate more, and de-risk decisions earlier. In this context, early-stage ship design can be seen as a case in point, with the real prize being not AI-generated geometry per se, but verifiable AI embedded in professional workflows.

 

Numerous studies have shown that early design stage choices have a significant effect on cost, carbon footprint and operability. Yet, they are made under uncertainty and time pressure. Nowadays, decarbonisation with new fuels and tighter coupling between hydrodynamics, structures and operations requires better exploration of the design space and proper multi-objective optimisation as early as possible. AI can help through generative models that propose plausible hull candidates and surrogate models that screen performance quickly. However, the outputs should remain traceable, repeatable and easy to interrogate within existing CAD/CAE workflows.

 

This can significantly accelerate iteration and widen the breadth of exploration. Diffusion models and other generators can sample learned design spaces while multimodal representations can improve geometric robustness and interpretability. In parallel, physics-informed learning is reducing data hunger in some settings. However, verification is still needed. The barriers are data availability, reproducibility, clear limits of applicability, and integration into review processes, including class-facing evidence and documentation.

 

This will have direct implications for education and professional identity. Tomorrow’s naval architect will be expected to interrogate training data, recognise when a model is extrapolating beyond its competence or hallucinating, and translate AI-generated options into evidence that survives design review. In other words, “good judgement” will increasingly include knowing when not to trust automation, and how to fall back to first principles and high-fidelity tools.

 

NAOME academics and researchers are developing a range of maritime AI models for design, operation and safety. Geometry representation is a decisive factor for trustworthy generative hullform design. Our recent framework, developed with support from MarRI-UK, learns a shared latent encoding of hull geometry from complementary modalities familiar to naval architects, using surface point clouds, waterlines and buttocks. It couples them with conditional latent diffusion to generate novel, geometrically coherent hulls consistent with high-level design parameters. The benefit is practical controllability and robustness, as the generated candidates are easier to interpret, check and refine than outputs produced from a single representation.

 

Looking ahead, there is a clear trend to move from AI as a plug-in to AI-native design toolchains, linking requirements, generated geometry, fast screening, high-fidelity analysis and the design review dossier. Verification should be built in, including automatic geometry and constraint checks, uncertainty signals and clear limits of use that accompany each candidate. The next step is performance-aware generation, where diffusion models and surrogates could enable estimation of resistance, seakeeping, emissions-related outcomes and other performance metrics, with targeted CFD/FEM for confirmation. These will only scale if policy, class practice and education keep up with how tools are validated and taught.

 

Author profile

Evangelos Boulougouris, head of the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering (NAOME), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

 

This article appeared in Opinion, TNA May-June 2026

LNG for cruise: the design implications

The most fundamental design constraint the report addresses is one naval architects have grappled with since the first LNG-fuelled cruise vessels entered service: volumetric penalty. LNG requires three to four times the storage volume of marine diesel oil for equivalent energy content, with storage temperatures held at approximately -162°C in atmospheric tanks.

 

The implications for hull form, internal arrangement, stability and cargo or passenger capacity are substantial. The fuel gas supply system, designed to handle cryogenic, low-flashpoint fuel and manage boil-off gas, represents a further layer of complexity that must be resolved at concept stage rather than retrofitted.

 

Propulsion system selection carries consequences that extend well beyond the engine room. The report highlights that methane slip – unburned methane escaping during combustion – varies significantly by engine type and load condition, and that this variation directly affects a vessel’s GHG intensity calculations under both FuelEU Maritime and the IMO Net-Zero Framework.

 

Otto-cycle dual-fuel medium-speed engines, the most widely deployed type in the cruise sector, have achieved methane slip below 1g/kWh through exhaust gas recirculation and spark ignition developments. Wärtsilä’s 31DF NextDF technology is cited as demonstrating a marked improvement in slip rates across the load range compared with its predecessor.

Stats   If 80% of biomethane available for transport is directed to shipping, it could cover up to 3.1% of shipping’s total energy demand by 2030 and 12.6% by 2050; at a 20% blending ratio those figures rise to 15.7% and 62.9% respectively.   Clarkson Research projects the LNG-fuelled merchant fleet (excluding gas carriers) will reach approximately 24% of the total fleet by 2050.   Methane has a Global Warming Potential of 28 times CO₂ over 100 years, and 84 times CO₂ over 20 years – the shorter timeframe being the more operationally urgent metric.   Fossil LNG well-to-tank emissions are listed under FuelEU Maritime at 18.5g CO₂eq/MJ, more than a third higher than conventional oil fuels.   LNG bunkering volumes hit a record 4.7 million cubic metres globally in 2023, up 62% on 2022; ship-to-ship deliveries doubled to 2.9 million cubic metres.   The global LNG bunker vessel fleet comprised 54 vessels with a total capacity of 8.6 million tonnes per year as of 2024, with a further 35 vessels needed by 2030.   Under the IMO Net-Zero Framework, VLSFO attracts Tier 1 and Tier 2 Remedial Unit costs from the outset of the regime in 2028, whereas diesel-cycle slow-speed LNG dual-fuel vessels only begin incurring FuelEU Maritime penalties after 2039.

Despite the demonstrated performance of the latest engine technologies, the report notes that current methane slip figures achieved by engines already in service have yet to be incorporated into either the FuelEU Maritime or IMO lifecycle analysis frameworks, a regulatory lag that Lloyd’s Register argues must be addressed if operators investing in cleaner technology are not to be penalised.

 

Nevertheless, the report is clear that the industry needs to push towards slip rates below 0.5g/kWh, and that regulatory frameworks have not yet caught up with current engine performance, a situation Lloyd’s Register is beginning to address through a new descriptive note and ShipRight procedure for recognising methane reduction measures, to be offered from 2026.

 

The low-load problem deserves particular attention from designers of cruise vessels. Port approach, manoeuvring and berthing operations are precisely the conditions under which four-stroke dual-fuel engines exhibit disproportionately high methane slip. The report argues that hybrid propulsion architectures, incorporating shaft generators, batteries and fuel cells, offer a technically credible solution, enabling stored energy to substitute for engine output during low-load phases.

 

For naval architects, this means the integration of energy storage and power management systems into the propulsion concept from the earliest design stage, with attendant implications for space allocation, structural arrangements and electrical system design.

 

Safe Return to Port (SRtP) requirements add a further dimension. On long repositioning voyages to drydock, vessels may exceed their SRtP radius, necessitating that at least one LNG train remains fully operational throughout the passage. This constrains the maintenance and survey activities that can be undertaken en route and reinforces the case for designed-in redundancy across all critical LNG system components.

 

The drydocking challenge addressed in the report reflects a broader truth about LNG-fuelled cruise vessels: they demand a fundamentally different approach to maintenance planning. Narrow out-of-service windows, residual cryogenic heel in tanks, pressurised gas circuits and the complexity of dual-fuel trains with full redundancy mean that many inspections and system tests cannot wait for the drydock. They must be conducted in service, with passengers aboard, requiring meticulous isolation arrangements, venting plans and access provisions that ought to be codified at the design stage.

 

Looking further ahead, the report makes a compelling case for LNG as the optimal fuel for onboard carbon capture. Lloyd’s Register estimates a 30-35% reduction in capture cost compared with conventional fuel, attributable to lower CO₂ output, cleaner combustion and compatibility with pre-combustion technologies that crack methane to produce hydrogen.

 

Post-combustion systems, which capture CO₂ from flue gas without requiring engine redesign, are identified as the most shipowner-friendly route, though they demand significant space and structural integration that again points to early design consideration.

 

Fuel for Thought: LNG for Cruise makes clear that LNG is neither a finished solution nor a dead end. For naval architects, it defines a technically demanding but navigable pathway, one that will reward those who engage with its design implications from the outset.

This article appeared in Technical, TNA May/June 2026.