KITTERY, MAINE – Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) plays a critical role in maintaining and modernizing the U.S. Navy’s submarine fleet. Like shipyards across the nation, Portsmouth faces the challenge of meeting growing maintenance demands with a limited skilled workforce and aging manufacturing equipment.
MxD helped PNSY address both challenges by deploying digital sensor technology that provides real-time insight into legacy equipment – helping the shipyard increase productivity and reduce maintenance-driven machine downtime by percent.
Building on Success
In June 2026, MxD received new funding to build on the successful pilot through MxD Sensor Kit 2.0, developing a lower-cost, scalable solution that can be deployed more broadly across the Organic Industrial Base (OIB).
MxD is now seeking a design, production and deployment partner to co-develop the next-generation technology. The project will install at least 100 updated sensor kits at PNSY and establish a roadmap to produce 400 or more units for broader OIB adoption.
The next-generation kits will make it easier to securely connect legacy equipment with modern digital systems, improve productivity and enable more proactive maintenance while creating a foundation for technologies such as AI-enabled analytics and digital twins.
Learn more about the Request for Proposals due Sept. 9, 2026.
The Challenge: Getting More from Existing Resources
Legacy manufacturing equipment can remain productive for decades, but older machines often lack the connectivity needed to understand utilization, identify downtime and effectively plan production.
At Portsmouth, this lack of real-time information made it more difficult to optimize equipment use and scheduling. Unexpected machine downtime could create production delays that ultimately affect submarine maintenance.
With skilled workers also in high demand, PNSY needed a solution that could help its existing workforce and equipment operate more efficiently.
The Solution: Connecting Legacy Equipment
In 2025, MxD engineers assessed operations at Portsmouth and installed 10 internally developed MxD Sensor Kits as part of an initial pilot.
The cyber-secure kits connect legacy manufacturing equipment with modern digital systems without requiring costly machine replacement. By collecting real-time machine data, the technology gives operators and managers greater visibility into equipment utilization, downtime and maintenance needs.
For the first time, PNSY could use real-time machine data to better understand and plan equipment utilization.
The Impact: 81% Less Maintenance-Driven Downtime
The results from the pilot were significant: maintenance-driven machine downtime decreased by 81%.
The improvement increased equipment utilization and throughput while helping Portsmouth make better use of its existing skilled workforce.
The success at PNSY demonstrates how targeted digital modernization can deliver measurable results without wholesale replacement of existing infrastructure. By scaling this technology, MxD is helping the OIB get more from its existing equipment and workforce – and ultimately helping reduce maintenance delays and return submarines to the fleet faster.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is located on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine, along the Piscataqua River near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Established in 1800, it is the U.S. Navy's oldest continuously operating shipyard, employing over 6,500 civilian and military personnel to overhaul, repair, and modernize nuclear-powered attack submarines.
A team of MxD engineers installs MxD Sensor Kits at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 2025.
“Thanks to MxD, we became the first U.S. Naval Shipyard to achieve real-time performance tracking of industrial plant equipment. This achievement has fundamentally changed the way we manage operations, respond to issues and plan maintenance.”
- Division Chief, Connected Equipment
- Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
