Recent Developments in the Safety Regime for Naval Ship Design

Abstract

AbstractThis paper brings together the issues presented by the author to the two International Maritime Conferences on Design for Safety, held in Glasgow in 1999 and in Osaka in 2004. To appreciate how the safety issues for naval ships differ from those for merchant vessels, it is necessary to consider how naval ship design differs from that for most merchant ships. The paper outlines the features of the U.K. Naval Ship Safety Regime and the most significant change since its 1998 implementation, the introduction of Naval Ship Classification. The second aspect of relevance is the role of the Design Authority for a new class of warships, now that the direct design of such vessels is no longer undertaken within the relevant government procurement agency. An important safety management feature, within this arrangement, is the role of the Naval Authority, which is outlined, prior to a concluding section considering the ways in which the current Naval Ship Safety Regime might be developed further. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.