Expleo, UK, 21 May 2025 – Expleo, the global engineering, technology and consulting company, is investing the next generation of UK naval engineering talent with its ship design challenge – Vision 202X.
Expleo works with defence primes and leading marine manufacturers on a diverse range of projects that contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and accelerate innovation to keep them one step ahead of the competition. To support this, Expleo launched its internal design challenge – Vision 202X – to focus marine learning and development around a complete vessel design that demonstrates intelligent engineering thinking, with flexibility at its core.
Over a period of six months, graduates and engineers worked as a team to complete a vessel design spiral approach, from requirements capture, engineering analysis and concept visualisation. During the project they honed skills in concept design, naval architecture, marine engineering as well as systems engineering, testing, validation and verification.
Jonathan Taylor, VP of Marine at Expleo, said: “Vision 202X showcases Expleo’s ability to assist its clients in accelerating the design and delivery of the next generation of ships. The multi-role, adaptable solution the team developed effectively meets evolving operational needs and supports the next generation of naval capability, for unmanned underwater vessels and surface ships.”
Taylor added: “A working understanding of Sustainable Development Goals was a key theme in the project, with engineers focusing on naval standards and IMO 2050 decarbonisation regulation, as energy efficiency becomes increasingly important in naval design.”
The project was supported by Commodore Steve Prest (Ret.), who served in the Royal Navy for 25 years. Prest acted as the client for the engineers, giving them the opportunity to talk to their customer throughout every stage, helping them to define mission needs, concepts of use and to challenge pre-conceived assumptions.
Commodore Steve Prest, said: “Investing in the next generation of naval engineering talent is vital. It’s projects like this that will propel us forward and keep UK engineers and engineering at the forefront of global ship design and construction.
“Our designs and thinking must evolve and be fit for the challenges of the 21st century – that’s exactly what we’ve done with Vision 202X.
“Working with this group at Expleo has left me hugely encouraged that the next generation are skilled, innovative and highly capable engineers who are embracing and applying emerging technology to design naval ships that are readily adaptable and more sustainable.”
Continuous professional development is central to an engineer’s career, and Expleo developed this programme to enable their engineers to hone existing skills and develop new ones, with a focus on client requirements and growing needs.
Expleo’s Chief Naval Architect, James Gladman, said: “The Vision 202X programme gives engineers the opportunity to develop critical skills in ship design and underpin our commitment to developing key capabilities for the UK maritime industry. The team challenged existing design philosophy, and used their cross-sector experience to identify solutions that will benefit ship design in the UK.
This view was supported by Jon Wines, Chief Solutions Architect at Expleo. Jon commented: “Navies face rapidly changing requirements that mean the patrol vessel of tomorrow must be adaptable and flexible. By taking a user-centric design approach, as the team did on Vision 202X, we can ensure platforms are fit for purpose not only today but for tomorrow as well.”
Expleo will showcase the outcomes of Vision 202X at the Combined Naval Event (CNE) 2025, which is held in Farnborough from 20 -22 May. To learn more about Expleo’s naval capabilities, you can find the team on stand F08.
Alternatively, you can visit Expleo.com.
