Naval ship concept design for the Republic of Korea Navy a systems engineering approach

Abstract

This thesis presents a new systems engineering based approach to naval ship concept design for the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) Navy. The R.O.K. Navy currently uses a traditional naval architecture approach in concept design. Naval architects focus only on naval architecture issues such as speed, range, and displacement

combat systems engineers focus on the performance of combat systems, weapons, and sensors. This design process creates some integration problems in the late design stage and during construction. For this reason, there is a growing interest in the systems engineering approach design concept in the R.O.K. Navy. Naval ship design is an aggregate of engineering, computer science, management, and even strategy and policy. Naval ship engineers should consider not only naval architecture issues such as hull form, stability, structure, maneuverability and propulsion, but also mission needs, effectiveness, cost/risk benefits, and integration with all combat systems. Naval architecture and combat systems engineering are a part of the design process, and they must be considered simultaneously a systems engineering approach to combatant ship design. To properly design a naval ship, engineers should consider how each of the systems combines optimally into a system of systems. The resulting process focuses on the systems engineering process applied to naval combatant design. Two systems engineering based naval ship concept design processes, one from NATO and the other from the U.S. Navy's Total Ship Systems Engineering (TSSE) program at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), are presented. The difference between the concept design process in the R.O.K Navy and the TSSE processes is studied. Based on the above studies and comparison of the processes, a new concept design process is proposed for the R.O.K. Navy. Finally, the Future Frigate (FFX) case study is performed using the newly proposed concept design process.