An Arsenal Ship Design

Abstract

The Navy's "Arsenal Ship Concept of Operations (CONOPS)" and "Arsenal Ship Capabilities Document (SCD)" addressed the need for the design of a large missile platform that could carry massive and precise firepower, accomplish long-range strike, and perform flexible targeting and multidimensional theater defense capabilities consistent with the policies of "Forward...From the Sea" and "Operational Maneuver from the Sea." The ship reported here is designed to be a large missile magazine that receives its launch orders from remote air, land or sea forces. It is fully integrated into the joint command and control structure to assist current forces in the opening days of conflict. A major design goal of the Arsenal Ship is to limit the crew size to 50 personnel through the use of system automation, redundancy and equipment reliability, while imposing an additional constraint of limiting the sailaway price to 550 million dollars.