Designing Warships for a Cost-Effective Life

Abstract

In the past the effectiveness of a ship was measured in terms of her weapon performance, speed and cruising range. Today more attention is paid to availability, in terms of the percentage of her total life for which the ship and all her systems are ready for operations. The lecture outlines the design of modern warships from the basic concept, its justification in terms of cost-effectiveness, the system of modelling costs to indicate the effect on the overall cost of adding or subtracting a weapons system, the development of the design and specification to a point at which the contract can be placed, and the reduction of upkeep costs and crew numbers. Machinery and equipment are being standardized for different classes of ships and the intervals between docking and refit periods will eventually be doubled. Health monitoring of machinery is being investigated as a means of reducing maintenance and increasing reliability. The effect of considering life costs as a percentage of the total spent on procurement, upkeep, modernization, etc, is discussed and the additional work now required during the design process to detail the whole of the upkeep task is outlined. Research and development on materials and corrosion problems are affected by the new thinking.