At 367,850 tonnes the Royal Navy is the fifth largest navy in the world, with this set to increase in the near future as the Type 26 and Type 31 enter the fleet. As one would imagine this presents a large logistical challenge when managing the maintenance of a fleet this size. Since its introduction to the commercial world as a concept in the early 20th century, condition-based monitoring has been used in the Royal Navy. Currently the Navy is looking into ‘Big Data’ as a concept and as such has an appetite for adopting a predictive approach to platform management. With the introduction of integrated platform management systems as seen in the Type 45 destroyer and the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier the RN has begun to adopt a lean manning approach to crewing its vessels. This has huge benefits in terms of both quality of living for the embarked ships company as well as a significant reduction in running costs. However, in terms of platform management there are fewer Technicians closed up in spaces to detect defects and Technicians rely heavily on the automated systems to indicate if machinery is running out of the allotted parameters. The usage of condition-based monitoring in the RN has not changed much since its inception. The equipment and systems used to collect and analyse machinery have been upgraded, however a move towards a fixed, more robust system would see a greater amount of useable data sent ashore for analysis. Remote operation of Naval assets and the heightened security measures required for military applications have slowed the move towards worldwide real time collection of data. Nevertheless, this does not have to result in a complete rejection of modern data analysis and there are a number of commercial users who operate in remote locations and with a similar requirement for security of the data collected. How the Royal Navy interacts with the fourth industrial revolution has the potential to guide the future of Naval combat; however as many industries have found, the move to the automated future doesn’t come without its own set of challenges.
