New Danish joint venture develops integration software for tomorrow’s flexible naval vessels

In future, it will be possible to reconfigure ships in a matter of hours, and thus transform an inspection ship into a patrol vessel, or a mine-sweeper into an environmental protection craft. At least if you ask the newly established company CUBEDIN A/S, which is a joint venture between two Danish companies, Systematic A/S and Odense Maritime Technology (OMT).

Both companies have made their name on the global market; in Systematic’s case within software development while OMT specialises in ship design. These competencies have now been brought together in CUBEDIN A/S, aiming to develop software and integration solutions for future flexible naval vessels, which has global interest.

OMT, whose roots stretch back to A.P. Moller - Maersk and Odense Shipyard, is delivering expertise within modern ship design, while the second half of the maritime partnership is the software company Systematic, which is behind IT solutions that are used worldwide within defence, health, the police and wind turbine operations.

The future is modular

Together, the two companies have created a software and integration concept that supports a brand-new type of modular, flexible naval vessel. In a nutshell, the ships are designed and built to accommodate different modules. These can accommodate different loads and can be quickly loaded/unloaded depending on the ship’s forthcoming missions. The modules can come from a wide range of suppliers, as long as they fit within the standard dimensions. CUBEDIN delivers the software and integration solutions that make the modules work as if they had always been part of the ship.

Danny Ingemann is the newly appointed CEO at CUBEDIN A/S. He is convinced that the future is modular, and that the modular designs point the way to tomorrow’s naval ships as well as vessels operated by the public authorities.

“Ships that are currently in service are not designed with flexibility in mind. They are usually created for a specific purpose and for a particular type of task. Using the CUBEDIN integration technology, shipbuilders can deliver modular vessels which, in the space of a few hours, can be adapted for different missions simply by replacing the modules. This is not just practical and flexible – it’s also far cheaper, because mission-specific ships are expensive to procure and maintain,” he says.

Global companies to make significant contributions

The content for the modules can be supplied by many different companies, and the new joint venture has already caught the attention of the maritime industry. At the world naval defence exhibition Euronaval in Paris in October 2022, CUBEDIN A/S signed a partnership agreement with the French technology giant Thales which, like several other companies around the world, has expressed an interest to package their technology in modules and having them integrated seamlessly with a ship platform.

“The aim of the integration technology is to deliver a module store that controls what modules a specific ship can use,” says Danny Ingemann.

As part of the new joint venture, OMT has developed the interface panels that the modules connect to, while Systematic is responsible for developing and supplying the software which enables the modules to communicate with the ship’s other systems.

According to Danny Ingemann, the CUBEDIN concept holds enormous potential on the global market, as it allows individual countries to decide, which functionalities their vessel should have.

“It’s a ground-breaking concept, because it’s based on open ship design and communication standards, and modules that are compatible with dimensions of an ISO standard container. It’s an approach that gives access to a large global market which needs this type of ship. We’re not in any doubt that this way of building naval vessels is the future,” he says.

Danny Ingemann expects the first ships with CUBEDIN’s integration technology to sail the seas within a couple of years.