America’s Maritime Action Plan, the Coast Guard’s icebreaker programs, and sustained Navy demand have put more government work in front of U.S. shipyards than at any point in decades. For commercial builders, the opportunity is real — but so are the constraints. The workforce is already stretched, and project timelines leave no room for rework asking the question, ‘how to deliver without breaking the yard.’

This session brings together shipbuilders, Navy leadership, and expert systems integrator to look at what actually moves a hull out of the dock faster. The panel will address the need for innovation, systems modernization and the necessary integration work for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Cyber systems (C5I) behind every vessel. The panel will address resource and schedule risk, advanced concepts, where integration tends to go wrong and what a shipyard needs in place before the first module arrives.  The conversation will also look at new technologies helping to speed build time and reduce bottlenecks, such as robotic welding, hull inspection crawlers, remote tank inspection, and more. For builders, operators, and repair yards across commercial maritime, the point is practical: the partnerships and tools that make a gray hull deliverable on schedule are largely the ones that make any vessel program more predictable.