Navantia Builds the Future of Naval Systems with Red Hat

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Navantia, a Spanish public company in naval and defense systems, has adopted Red Hat solutions to modernize the development and deployment of its systems and services. The collaboration helps Navantia deliver technologies for the future of defense and naval-readiness.

Navantia, part of the SEPI Group, has over 300 years of history in military and civil shipbuilding, as well as in the development of defense systems, maintenance services and sustainable energy. The company faced the challenge of delivering operational continuity throughout the life cycle for essential systems and services. Compounding this challenge was the complexity in system lifespan, as these technologies are expected to remain operational for more than three decades. 

An additional driver of Navantia’s mission is the rapid evolution of hardware that can oftentimes be challenging when considering the longevity required for developments in the defense sector. To help address this challenge, Navantia prioritized the abstraction of hardware and software, essentially removing software dependencies, which are dynamic, from the underlying hardware requirements, which tend to be more stable. Furthermore, the company sought to standardize the development of systems and services, which were previously operated in independent silos, to optimize maintenance and management.

To address these challenges, the Navantia team deployed a set of Red Hat open source solutions to deliver long-term support and interoperability. Red Hat OpenShift serves as the application platform for virtualization, containers and workload management in complex operational environments. This enables Navantia to build, support and manage a wide variety of applications, including distributed operational environments. This common platform approach provides greater flexibility, availability and unified control. 

Navantia uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the foundational operating system for its consoles, containers and virtual machines (VMs). The platform leverages a combination of software and specialized tools. To enable comprehensive management of these Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, Navantia utilizes Red Hat Satellite for centralized management of its systems and security updates. For the management of its systems at the edge, Navantia uses Red Hat Device Edge, optimizing software deployment on end devices. The adoption of these solutions provides Navantia with several key benefits:

• Enhanced system control: a common platform approach enables Navantia to maintain control over its systems across diverse environments.
• Automated deployments in challenging environments: performing automatic deployments of essential systems.
• Independent operation: deployment teams now have portable tools capable of operating independently, removing the dependency on data centers or cloud services.
• Increased efficiency and resilience: automation enables faster, more accurate deployment and service recovery.

Navantia has also received support from Red Hat Consulting for the deployment of these solutions, which are currently operating in an advanced stage of implementation. Additionally, Navantia is developing advanced simulation and management tools. These models focus on predictive maintenance, automation and operational efficiency. Additionally, they integrate into collaboration with strategic partners.

Looking ahead, Navantia plans to extend these deployments for adoption in its operating systems, facilitating continued innovation in a context of accelerated digital transformation and increasing demands in the defense sector.

Supporting Quotes

Julia Bernal, country manager Spain and Portugal, Red Hat

"The collaboration with Navantia is a testament to how open source solutions can drive digital transformation in sectors as demanding and critical as defense. We are proud to help Navantia modernize its operations, gain efficiency and control and lay the groundwork for continuous innovation that will keep it at the forefront of the naval defense sector."

Alejandro Cárdenas Romo, Head of Infrastructure and Cybersecurity, Navantia 

"At Navantia, the lifespan of our products spans decades, while technology evolves at an increasingly accelerated pace. Our biggest challenge was to maintain the operability and development of our systems without being tied to specific hardware. Red Hat has allowed us to abstract from that layer, ensuring that our products continue to function while we develop on the latest innovations. The adoption of Red Hat technologies has enabled us to make a qualitative leap in how we develop and deploy our systems. It provides us with the robustness and support we need to continue innovating in such a critical sector."