The US Navy has been studying the technical and cost impacts associated with the availability and cost of fossil fuel contrasted with nuclear energy alternatives for surface combatants and amphibious warfare ships.
Early in the dark days of World War II, President Roosevelt asked the Navy how it would provide the thousands of ships necessary for the numerous amphibious assault landings that were being planned. At a subsequent high‐level meeting, where John Neidermair, the Technical Director of the Preliminary Design Division at BUSHIPS (Bureau of Ships–a predecessor organization to the Naval Sea Systems Command–NAVSEA), created a concept design sketch of the now famous LSTs. It was this same BUSHIPS Ship Design organization that designed the US Navy Fleet which defeated the Japanese and German navies. And it was the BUSHIPS successor organization, NAVSEA, which designed the 600‐ship Fleet during the President Reagan build‐up of the 1980s and early 1990s. This early stage ship design capability to translate the operators' needs into technically feasible ship concepts and designs is still a core responsibility of NAVSEA. However, NAVSEA is now undertaking the grand challenge of rebuilding the Navy's ship design capabilities which were dramatically downsized during the 1990s. The Human Capital Strategy for Ship Design Acquisition Workforce Improvement is a proven road map for reconstituting the Navy's ship design capabilities and reinvigorating the naval ship design community. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and NAVSEA made significant progress in this direction by establishing the Navy's Center for Innovation in Ship Design (CISD). CISD is accelerating the career development of ship design leaders, and is paving the way for fully implementing a Human Capital Strategy for Ship Design Acquisition Workforce Improvement.
In the summer of 2005, the lead ship of the LPD 17 Class was delivered to the US Navy. The LPD 17 is a highly capable amphibious assault warship, designed as a total ship system, which will provide significantly improved warfighting capabilities to support US Marine Corps and joint operations. Potential ship capabilities were initially explored as LX Concept Studies (1989–1990) and the final ship took form in the 1990s as Preliminary, Contract, and Detail Design progressed. Fabrication of the lead ship began in June 2000 and the LPD 17 was launched in July 2003. Currently, three ships have been delivered to the US Navy and five are under construction. The LPD 17 was the last contract design developed in‐house under the leadership of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) ship design group utilizing NAVSEA's highly experienced ship design workforce. Many new and innovative concepts and approaches were introduced into the LPD 17 design and acquisition process. The LPD 17 was the first surface ship design to experience the benefits of Total Ship Systems Engineering, Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), Navy–Shipbuilder Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) collocated at the shipyard, and an Integrated Product Data Environment (IPDE). Such dramatic changes created many opportunities, hurdles, and even some pain. The Navy's Center for Innovation in Ship Design (CISD) championed a systems engineering case study of the LPD 17 ship design addressing all phases from requirements determination through detail design. This paper provides a retrospective of what occurred in order to document best ship design practices and lessons learned and to determine how the naval ship design process can be further improved. These lessons learned and best design practices will help transmit accumulated intellectual capital to other shipbuilding programs and future design leaders. The construction and delivery of ships is at a stage that provides a logical benchmark from which to make assessments. For example, the Secretary of the Navy recently received the US Marine Corps initial impressions of the LPD 17 Operational Evaluation (OPEVAL): “The Right Ship, The Right Size, The Right Capabilities.” Although a number of ship design process innovations contributed to a sound Contract Design technical package, it is now common knowledge that the LPD 17 lead ship was over budget and late. The authors conclude that the most significant best practice, or lesson learned in the case of LPD 17, is that there must be a tightly integrated, seamless, collaborative design‐build approach between the Navy and the Shipbuilder(s) throughout the whole design‐build process starting at the very beginning of ship design. There are new ship design projects like MPF(F) and CG(X) that could benefit from the innovations, best practices, and lessons learned of the LPD 17 Ship Design: leading a sea change toward collaborative product development.
The ever increasing complexity of ships coupled with cost, schedule, and resource constraints require innovative methods by the Naval Sea Systems Command's ship design community to meet this challenge. This paper describes the effort by the NavSea Ship Arrangement Design Division to dramatically improve its ship design capability by the use of a system of computer‐based design tools called the General Arrangement Design System. The General Arrangement Design System (GADS) is based on the engineering requirements of the ship arrangement design process. GADS is currently being used as a production engineering tool. This paper is organized into two parts. Part I describes the General Arrangement Design System, and Part II describes the general arrangement design methodology.
The LPD 17 Amphibious Transport Dock Class will be the functional replacement for the LPD 4, LST 1179. LSD 36 and LKA 113 Classes of amphibious ships scheduled to be decommissioned prior to 2010. The program is nearing completion of Contract Design with the lead ship scheduled for commissioning early next century. Like its predecessors, the LPD 17 design is focused on meeting the amphibious mission lift requirements, and does so capably: 2300 m2 vehicle lift, 710 m3 cargo capacity, 720 troops, 2 LCAC and 2 CH‐53 (or 4 CH‐46) spots. In contrast to the ships it replaces, LPD 17 Class ships will have superior passive survivability (e.g., reduced radar cross section, structural hardening, collective protection system, smoke ejection system) and unprecedented AAW self‐defense combat systems: 64 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) “quadpacked” in a 16‐cell MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) controlled by the Ship Self‐Defense System (SSDS) and Advanced Combat Direction System (ACDS) using AN/SPS‐48E, AN/SPQ‐9B and Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). LPD 17 also employs the first full ship fiber optic cable plant for the backbone of its Integrated Interior Command and Control (IC)2‐ system. In addition to its many technical “firsts,” LPD 17 is the first Acquisition Category (ACAT) ID naval warship acquired under the revised Department of Defense (DoD) 5000 series acquisition requirements. More recently, the LPD 17 program became the first lead ship new construction program to implement the June 94 Secretary of Defense specifications and standards reform policy. This procurement policy change effectively prohibits reliance on the thousands of Military Specifications and Standards (MILSPECs and MILSTDs) unless specific, individual waivers are approved. Because Contract Design was approximately two‐thirds complete at the time the policy was signed, the LPD 17 Design Team developed and executed an accelerated three‐phase review effort with five shipbuilders and the American Bureau of Shipping. This effort resulted in the elimination of over 75% of the original 1500 government references. Inherent in the review process was the requirement to neither compromise military performance nor increase program cost. Accordingly, a critical core of MILSPECs and MILSTDs are presently considered as candidates for retention in the ship specification and waiver requests are being prepared. The waiver policy also calls for review and waiver of the entire ship specification. Broad impacts of this reform effort are presently being assessed as the LPD 17 Program continues toward lead ship construction approval.
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