A Methodology to Support Early Stage Off-the-Shelf Naval Vessel Acquisitions

Abstract

This paper describes a research programme to construct a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology that supports acquiring organisations in the early stages of Off-the-Shelf (OTS) naval vessel acquisitions. A structured approach to design and requirements definition activities has been incorporated into the methodology to provide an easily implemented, reusable approach that supports defensible acquisition of OTS naval vessels through traceability of decisions. The methodology comprises two main parts. Firstly, a design space is developed from the capability needs using Set-Based Design principles, Model-Based Conceptual Design, and Design Patterns. A key idea is to employ Concept and Requirements Exploration to trim the design space to the region of OTS designs most likely to meet the needs. This region can be used to specify Request for Tender (RFT) requirements. Secondly, the methodology supports trades-off between the OTS design options proposed in the RFT responses using a multi-criteria decision making method. The paper includes an example implementation of the methodology for an indicative Offshore Patrol Vessel capability.

Revisiting Large Scale Defence Acquisition: Uncertainty and Acquisition Responsiveness

“…Suggestions to improve naval acquisition have tended to focus primarily on using digital tools and ship modelling (Neches et al, 2012) to speed up and improve the process. Another is moving the physics underpinning ship acquisitions decision further "to the left" (Morris, 2019). Creating tools and processes for early-stage design that enable engineers, architects, and decision-makers to collaborate (le Poole et al, 2022;Mathieson, 2021) using a single source of data encapsulated in a model (Charisi et al, 2022), and use digital simulations of the ship to optimise the design (Papanikolaou et al, 2020;Parsons et al, 2021;Parsons et al, 2020).…”