Investigating the link between combat system capability and ship design

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is the examination of a method to supplement current combatant ship synthesis tools with combat system equipment and warfighting capability parameters. Current conceptual ship design tools lack an early integration of the naval architecture and the combat system aspects of a ship. Although the U.S. Navy's vision and the current JCIDS process involve designing ships based on warfighting capability using measures of effectiveness, the current ship synthesis tools lack the appropriate combat system parameters that will allow design for capability. This study specifically investigates a link between a combat system capability and a ship design by conducting research and analysis on an existing combat system, a shipborne air search radar. A mathematical relationship was obtained between the radars detection ranges and their respective system weights. This equation describing the relationship between a combat system capability (radar detection range) and a naval architecture parameter (weight) was used to supplement an existing Excel-based ship synthesis tool. By inserting this into the model, the ships synthesized were able to change based on a desired combat system capability input from the user. Additionally, by modeling the radar detection range in a warfighting scenario in ExtendSim, the impacts of the radar detection range on warfighting effectiveness were computed. Therefore, it was demonstrated that a ship synthesis model could produce designs based on a user's input of a stakeholder-desired combat capability. Using a single combat system and its corresponding measure of effectiveness in a single warfare area, this thesis shows as a proof of concept that combat system capability can be integrated into ship design. It lays the groundwork for creating an improved ship synthesis tool that includes complete sensitivity to capabilities from all the combat systems on the ship and how these selected parameters impact mission performance in a large spectrum of warfare areas. With this new ship synthesis model, designers can directly address stakeholder concerns, and can conduct trade off analyses for decision makers that result in an optimal ship design.