The brand new Panther destroyer brings a number of new technologies to the DDS but one which is maybe the most important is Zero Maintenance Operation (ZMO), part of Open Architecture 2.5 which debuts with the type this month. ZMO has been incorporated into the Panther's engines and reactor cell, its is an automated system for maintenance and repair. Although physical components will still need a manual replacement (which will mostly be done by servo-robots) much repair can be done by automatically diverting past broken components. The systems can be monitored and controlled from anywhere on the ship and also off the ship using FIDO technologies.
The Panther thus does not really have an engine room, rather the Chief Engineer has an office near the reactor cell next to the main spare parts store. It is hoped Panther will be much cheaper to run and more resilient than older types.
