Model-based Systems Engineering approach to US Navy towing and salvage fleet recapitalization

Abstract

The United States Navy owns four salvage ships and four towing ships that will reach the end of their 40-year life expectancy in 2019. The program manager for these vessels has a set of desirable performance requirements for a new ship class, T-ARS(X), which combines the capabilities from both the salvage and towing ship classes. The need to develop a recapitalization strategy based on either designing a new ship class based on these desirable requirements or purchasing commercial capabilities based on the salvage and towing community’s needs is paramount. The Department of Defense (DoD) has shifted defense planning from the specific service requirements generating system (RGS) acquisition to the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) approach that focuses on requirements generation based on customer need. This paper explores how to use systems architecture development principles in the context of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to incorporate the capabilities needed for towing and salvage recapitalization into a cohesive framework for developing the T-ARS(X) requirement specification. The CORE design tool is used to implement the MBSE architecting process using the Naval Architecture Elements Reference Guide (NAERG) and standardized operational tasks to create Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) v1.5 products from system models. The requirements generated from the architecture model are compared with the current, combined towing and salvage-capable commercial platforms for analysis. The methodology presented provides the towing and salvage community with the basis to perform a capabilities-based analysis of alternatives (AoA) for the T-ARS(X) recapitalization.