Digitalisation in the maritime sector is often presented as a technological upgrade. The contributions in this issue make clear that it is something far more structural: a shift in how we design ships, organise shipbuilding, regulate navigation and govern data.
The SEUS project, covered by Diego de Léon and Herbert Koelman, demonstrates how early-stage design is moving from document-based iteration towards integrated, model-centric workflows. AI-supported engineering, as discussed by Juan Oliveira, adds further layers.
Yet, digital maturity is not only a design issue. Jan Hedeman argues that Europe’s structural weakness lies less in capability than in fragmentation. Digital collaboration may offer competitiveness without requiring consolidation. In that sense, digitalisation becomes industrial strategy.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s January 2026 issue: Know how
Control and legal complexity
At the same time, greater connectivity inevitably raises questions of control. The EU Data Act shifts access rights over operational ship data from OEMs towards users, as discussed by Lenneke Sprik. Digital twins and connected onboard systems are no longer governed solely by contracts; they fall within a statutory European framework. Vendor lock-in is challenged, but new tensions arise around trade secrets, cybersecurity and interoperability.
Legal complexity deepens further when automation moves from assistance to autonomy. Nynke Vellinga shows how autonomous and remotely operated vessels challenge traditional concepts such as the role of the master. As control shifts from human to system, responsibility does not disappear – it must be reassigned. National exemptions, Rhine regulations and the forthcoming IMO MASS Code illustrate that regulations are adapting, but not without friction.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s December 2025 issue: Resolutions & fuel for thought
Coherence
What emerges from these perspectives is a common conclusion: digitalisation is no longer an add-on. It affects power relations, design methodology, industrial organisation and legal accountability simultaneously.
For the Dutch and European maritime sector, the central challenge is coherence. Technology, regulation and collaboration must develop in alignment. Only then can digitalisation deliver not just smarter tools, but a more resilient and competitive maritime system.
This is editor-in-chief Robin Zander’s editorial accompanying the February 2026 issue.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s November 2025 issue: Roaring twenties
SWZ app and archive
Our digital archive is available to subscribers both online and in our new app (available for Android and Iphone) and they can read the digitial version of our February issue there. Not yet a subscriber? Visit our subscription page.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s October 2025 issue: Looking forward
The articles in SWZ|Maritime’s February issue
In addition to the regular sections such as Dutch news, Global news, Markets, and Mars Report, the February issue features a special on digitalisation as well as other articles. They are:
- Shipbuilding output on the rise
- Damen ‘absolute kernspeler’ in maritieme industrie
- Regulating data in the maritime sector
- Legal challenges of autonomous shipping
- A new era of digital ship design?
- European shipbuilding needs digital collaboration
- AI will reshape the shipbuilding industry
- This ship has sailed
- Naval spending ramps up
- CEDA – Disposal to natural defence
- CEDA – A race to the finish line
Picture: One of the rapidly emerging technologies in the maritime sector is the digital twin, both for commercial and naval assets (photo Siemens, cover picture of the February 2026 issue).
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s September 2025 issue: Royal Netherlands Navy in transition
