Kongsberg Maritime Advances Sustainable Shipping with AI Navigation

Kongsberg Maritime has entered the prequalification stage of the Royal Norwegian Navy’s national competition to design and develop up to 28 standardised vessels under the P1118 programme. This move reflects a strategic intention to extend its role in naval ship design and integrated maritime systems ahead of its planned spin-off and independent public listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Scope of Participation and Technology Offering
The P1118 programme, structured by the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency, seeks comprehensive vessel designs that support the Navy’s long-term strategic requirements for performance, versatility, and cost efficiency. Kongsberg Maritime is competing using its full portfolio of maritime technology, encompassing advanced ship design capabilities and integrated systems that support navigation, automation, manoeuvring, energy management, and combat-relevant operations.

Kongsberg’s participation is built on decades of experience: the company has delivered complete ship designs for over 1,000 vessels across civilian and military sectors and supplied core systems for more than 900 naval vessels worldwide, including key systems onboard modern frigate classes such as the British, Canadian, Australian, and Norwegian Type 26 ships. Its solutions integrate navigation, dynamic positioning, automation and other mission-critical technologies essential for modern warship operation.

Differentiation from Competitors
Unlike pure design houses or single-product suppliers, Kongsberg Maritime presents a vertically integrated maritime technology offering. Its approach combines hull design expertise with integrated systems — for bridge navigation, propulsion, dynamic positioning, and automation — enabling a harmonised vessel architecture rather than standalone components. This broad capability set differentiates it from competitors that may provide narrower offerings focused on individual subsystems or external design partners without in-house integration.

The company’s extensive installed base — with technology deployed on more than 30,000 vessels globally — offers a depth of operational data and lifecycle insight that supports optimisation of future platforms for reliability, maintainability, and performance. This operational footprint serves as a practical differentiator as navies increasingly seek solutions with proven real-world performance and predictable lifecycle costs.

Industry Context and Export Potential
Standardised naval vessels reflect a broader industry trend towards modularity and commonality in fleet planning, where repeatable designs enable economies of scale in acquisition, training, maintenance, and sustainment. By participating in the P1118 competition, Kongsberg Maritime aligns itself with this shift, offering solutions that can support interoperability and streamlined support chains — critical factors for national defence planning and for export opportunities within allied markets.

The company also emphasises opportunities for the wider Norwegian maritime cluster, as successful execution of a national standardised vessel programme could bolster export prospects for local shipbuilders, systems integrators, and technology providers.

www.kongsberg.com