By Robert Nowinski
In the past few years, the US Navy has begun the discussion of upgrading their ships. Some of the things include a legislation passed to modernize the hull coatings by 2028. These upgrades will combat rust, corrosion, biological adhesions and other issues.
The Harvard University’s Adaptive Surface Technologies team conducted more than 5 years of experiments at international testing facilities. Research utilized drydock schedules of naval ships that run in approximately 5-year cycles. The institute’s technology displayed “superior performance” to typical Navy ship coatings such as the Akzo Nobel’s BRA-640 and 1100SR, as well as Hempel’s X3.
Other upgrades include radar, sensors, combat systems, and cooling systems. The newer systems are being tested on a few destroyers before being moved on to other ships. The ships will go through sea trials before the systems are installed elsewhere.
For now, everything but the radar will be tested, then the ships will come back to the port to get the system installed. If all goes well, all four upgrades will be put on destroyers in one maintenance session. In the future, the Navy hopes to have multiple ships per year working on upgrades.
More recently, India and Ireland have also upgraded their militaries. India has taken pointers from the current war in Ukraine to include more equipment, such as anti-drone gear, and replace aging Russian tech. Ireland will have its Army Ranger Wing undergo a name change to Ireland Special Operations Force—or IRL-SOF for short—and will make “dramatic changes to its command-and-control structure, making it a central part of military decision-making; and, as a result, more likely to be deployed on missions in Ireland and abroad.”
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