Page 14: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2026)

The Path to Zero – Sponsored

THE EVERCLEAN SOLUTION

Intelligence That's Been Operating in the Water for 20 Years.

LEARN MORE

Still Below the Waterline:

What Hull Inspection Has to Produce

T e Navy is moving to predictive maintenance and seeks proven technology to do so. For most systems aboard a ship, the condition data is well documented. For the hull, it is a dif erent story.

nels. Detailed coverage requires close contact work.

The Plan Asks for Something the Hull Currently 2. Position: Every observation must be tied to a location on

Cannot Provide

The Navy’s FY27 shipbuilding plan is direct about the fu- the hull, so that same precise location can be evaluated again.

ture of maintenance. Two speci? c points within the plan are 3. Frequency: There must be enough controlled inspections signi? cant to anyone who works on hulls. The ? rst is a pivot to show a direction. A single inspection only illustrates the from the single long dry dock period toward a maintenance state of the hull in one day. It cannot show what is changing continuum. This means smaller and more frequent work that or the rate of change, which is required to calculate mainte- keeps ships in service. The second is a move toward predic- nance decisions.

tive maintenance using AI and machine learning to discover 4. Con? guration: When the inspection demands change, the problems before they become failures. The plan is clear about system must have the ability to adapt. On most vehicles, the the stage of technology it requires. It does not intend to fund sensor and the vehicle are one design decision, so a new in- prototyping where mature commercial systems already exist. spection requirement means a completely new solution.

The bottom line is that both these directions require the ability 5. Structure: The data must be presentable. Data and video to routinely collect reliable vessel condition records through that require manual aggregation cause friction to a process e? ective and readily available solutions. that must be simpli? ed and streamlined.

This is not a novel requirement for most systems aboard.

Why Most Inspections Meet Only a Few of the Criteria

Engine performance, auxiliary load, and fuel consumption are all logged continuously, and the data is frequently reviewed. Plenty of hull inspection methods meet one or two of these

Hull condition, however, does not have a daily assessment. criteria, but very few meet all ? ve. The reason is not due to ef-

As the hull is the largest and most vulnerable surface on a fort or quality. A dive team can reach anywhere on the hull, but vessel, this is a critical maintenance lapse. It is not simply the output is a description rather than a record. Each dive visit a static exterior. The hull drives fuel consumption, a? ecting costs enough that owners allocate resources for speci? c use coating condition costs to structural integrity. In most cases, cases. A magnetically attached crawler with a camera provides it is inspected twice in ? ve years by a dive team, with no reli- close-contact video but is limited when it cannot leave the hull, able data record for maintenance comparison. Data cannot be and a free-? ight vehicle covers ground quickly but cannot stay predicted when it has not been logged. attached to the hull for contact work.

None of this is unique to the Navy. Commercial ? eets feel These are all solutions with clear constraints for a compre- the same gap, and the yards doing the service inherit the prob- hensive proactive plan. Achieving all ? ve points at once is not lem as they price docking against a hull sight unseen. a feature that can be easily added on to upgrade. It requires a holistic approach to robotic system design from the start.

Five Musts of an Inspection

There Is No Substitute for Time in the Water

It is not su? cient to question whether hulls should be in- spected more often; it is widely acknowledged that they should. The marine environment is a punishing place to build any-

The more informed consideration is what an inspection needs thing: everything corrodes. Pressure and current break engi- to produce before it can support a proactive initiative. neering decisions that should otherwise be successful. Visibil- ity is often close to zero. Simulation is a great training tool, 1. Coverage: The inspection must cover the majority of the but it does not compare to placing a vehicle in the water and hull, including niche areas like sea chests and thruster tun- ? nding out what fails.

MR #8 (1-17).indd 14 MR #8 (1-17).indd 14 8/6/2026 8:43:59 PM8/6/2026 8:43:59 PM